Glass 
Book 



/ 



A 

VINDICATION 

OF THE 

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLED 
TRUTH AN!) ORDER, 

IN THE 

©nisi mw wwwmuM 

FROM THE ALLEGATIONS 

OP THE 

REV. WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D. D, 



BY THE 

REV. FREDERICK BEASLEY, D. D, 

SECTOR OP SAINT MICHAEL'S CHURCH IN TRENTON IN THE STATE OF NEW=> 
JERSEY J AND AUTHOR OF THE " SEARCH OF TRUTH, IN THE 
SCIENCE OF THE HUMAN MIND." 



Lux est gratissima undecunque affulgeat. 

Locke, 

Nullum fugimus examen fidei nostrse; nec earn a quoquam recipe 
petimus, nisi peracta prius investigatione. 

Bp, Burnet, 



TRENTON* 

PRINTED BY JOSEPH JUSTICE, 
1830, 



DEDICATION 



TO THE HONORABLE ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON, LATE GOVERNOR 
OF THE STATE OF NEW- JERSEY : 

Dear Sir:— 

Allow me to present this small treatise to you, as a tri- 
bute of that esteem and affection, with which a long and fa- 
miliar acquaintance and unnumbered offices of friendship 
have inspired me — A protracted and intimate intercourse, has 
only served to unfold to me, those numerous talents and vir- 
tues which reflected honor upon the station, to which you 
were elevated by the unsolicited suffrages of your fello^v 
citizens. New-Jersey, in proportion to her extent of territory 
and number of inhabitants, not only supplied her full share of 
patriots and heroes, who attained to the first distinction du- 
ring our revolutionary contest, but has also filled the chair 
of her chief magistracy with as able and virtuous a succes- 
sion of men, as that which has adorned the same seat in any 
of her Sister Republicks. The name of Williamson will by 
her future sons be proudly registered among those of 
Livingston, Paterson, Ogden, Dickerson, and her present ex- 
cellent Chief Magistrate. Whatever may be thought of the 
comparative merits of these distinguished men, in regard to 
yourself, I am assured, from personal knowledge, that none 
of them could have discovered a purer and more intense 
patriotism, a more deep and solid judgment, a more unsul- 
lied integrity and more consummate prudence. To discover 
one such genuine, and unsophisticated character, whose heart 
is true to the interests of virtue and friendship, amidst the 
dissimulation and malignity, that embitter the ordinary inter- 
courses of life, is refreshing and delightful to the soul. Nor, 
I fervently trust, amidst the other objects of human desire 
and pursuit, have you, (like too many others who have sullied 
their political glory, with infidelity and irreligion, and mar- 
red that veneration which their fellow-citizens would willing- 
ly have rendered them, by indulging the language of indec- 
orous attack upon their faith,) lightly regarded those great 
truths of our common Christianity, which it is the intent of 
that work, now respectfully offered to your acceptance, to 
defend. The true patriot, the sound politician, and the genu- 



iv 



hie philanthropist, will, and must always be the friend of re- 
ligion, while the profound philosopher, the impartial enquirer, 
and the truly good man must always become a christian. The 
evidences of Christianity are sufficient to satisfy the mind of 
any unprejudiced enquirer. It is only from imperfect views 
and superficial investigation, as well as vicious inclinations, 
that mankind are made infidels and scepticks. That you may 
not only have your understanding satisfied upon these momen- 
tous subjects, but that God will in his good time, if he has 
not done so already, exert the saving influences of his grace 
upon your heart, is the fervent prayer, of your most affec- 
tionate and faithful friend, 

THE AUTHOR. 



DISSERTATION I. 



Profectd eos ipsos, qui se aliquid certi habere arbitrantur, addubitare coge-i 
doctissimorum hominum de maxima re tanta dissentio. 

Cicer: de nat : Deorum. 



Dr. Channing has been in the habit, for some years past, 
of communicating to the public his peculiar opinions con- 
cerning Christianity, in the form of discourses, reviews, and 
occasional essays separately published. In the work which 
has just issued from the press, he has collected all these 
tracts into a single volume, and it is presumed, has now fa- 
voured his fellow citizens with a full and complete exposition 
of his whole scheme of evangelical doctrine and discipline. 
This unreserved disclosure of his sentiments upon such mo- 
mentous topics, is a measure, which we had long anticipated 
from his acknowledged liberality and manly independence of 
character, and, we doubt not, will be followed by the most 
beneficial consequences. An enlightened public will now be 
able to form a just estimate of the nature, properties, and 
tendencies of that new system of doctrines and precepts, 
which has hitherto appeared to be groping its way through 
our Country, inveloped in the shades of obscurity and con- 
cealment, while of its ulterior views and remote consequen- 
ces, they were unable to arrive at any determinate or settled 
calculations. This is fair, correct, and honorable dealing, and 
conduct suited to the christian profession, as well as conso- 
nant to the high and holy functions of one who ministers at 
the altar of his God. We are gratified at the circumstance, 
that we are now able distinctly to discern the great purpose 
at which the advocates of the new doctrine aim, and the means 
by which they anticipate its accomplishment. When this dis- 
covery is thus fairly made, it is high time, that the orthodox 
clergy, and the laity who are sound in the faith, should awake 
from their dormant state and be upon the alert in the defence 
and confirmation of the truth. When the enemy presents 
himself before them in full view, in formidable array, and 
with hostile banner unfurled, surely the champions of the 
cross, will not hesitate to come forth to meet their antagonists, 
girding up their loins, buckling on their armour, and anima- 
ting their spirits to the warfare, The cause of Christy of that. 



6 



Divine Saviour, whose character is vilified and traduced, 
whose great achievrnents in the work of their salvation are 
disparaged, and whose precious blood is trampled under foot, 
should be too dear to their hearts, and lies too deeply at the 
foundation of their best hopes for this world and the next, to 
allow them a moment's hesitation in determining to exert their 
highest energies, and display their best skill and address in 
its support and advancement. 

We have hitherto understood, not without some degree of 
consolation amidst our apprehensions concerning the progress 
of this new religion in our country, that Dr. Channing, 
whose talents entitle him to the distinction of being a leader 
among its advocates, did not proceed to such extremities, as 
some of those, who, in England, had distinguished themselves 
by broaching and maintaining its principles. It is true, indeed, 
that we do not find in his theory, the materialism and philo- 
sophical necessity of Belsham and Priestly, the first of whom 
seems to have revived the exploded follies of Hobbs, Spinoza, 
and Helvetius, and the last to have embraced a scheme of fa- 
talism scarcely less objectionable. In Dr. Channing's work, 
we hear nothing of the errors in doctrine, and mistatements 
of facts in the sacred scriptures., of the fallacies of St. Paul's 
reasoning, and of the inconsistencies discoverable between the 
opinions of Evangelists and Apostles ; nor are his pages defi- 
led with accounts of the corruptions of the sacred text, of fig- 
urative interpretations of scripture, of the abolition of the 
Sabbath by the Gospel, and of the innocence of polygamy 
under the law of Christ. With such defilements as these, he 
has had the prudence and good sense, not to contaminate his 
pages. Mr. Belsham, and the same observation, we are sorry 
to say, is too applicable to the philosophic Priestly, with the 
poison diffused through his performances, has mixed the anti- 
dote, that saves the patient from its fatal consequences. The 
principles which they espoused, and, with an indiscretion and 
temerity having scarcely a paralell in the history of the 
church, boldly and unblushingly promulged, were too out- 
rageous departures from the doctrines once delivered to the 
saints, not to shock the moral feelings and revolt the minds of 
a people who had ever relished the pure milk of the divine 
word, or drunk at their original fountains, the waters of salva- 
tion. By attempting too much from a single movement, they 
have accomplished little, and exhausted all their strength and 
resources without producing any important results, inasmuch 
as even those of the clergy and laity who felt a secret dispo- 



sition to favour their cause, were afraid or ashamed to enlist 
themselves under the banners of such heedless and desperate 
chieftains. Dr. C. from some cause or other, whether from re- 
marking the ill policy and inexpediency of a procedure so 
rash and precipitate, or from a difference in constitutional 
temperament, comes forward with greater caution and re- 
serve, but with the serious air and confident tread of a man, 
who is thoroughly convinced that the opinions he assails are 
erroneous, and the intelligence he has to communicate is vast- 
ly important to the best interests of mankind, both in this 
world and the next. We took up his volume, although en- 
trenched we must allow — deeply entrenched in those old 
fashioned prejudices which the scriptures and dull Divines 
had instilled into our minds from the cradle, yet, we trust* 
sufficiently in the spirit of candour, enquiry, and impartiality, 
to have yielded to the force of truth, and to have adopted 
any new creed which appeared to be substantiated by con- 
clusive argument. We are sorry to be constrained to ac- 
knowledge, perhaps at the hazard of having our philosophical 
acumen called in question, or our patience of enquiry and ex- 
tent of comprehension disputed, that we laid down the vo- 
lume, after repeated perusals and close attention to the subject 
without having had broken one single link in the chain of our 
old prejudices and prepossessions, without being convinced 
that a solitary error had been detected in that superannua- 
ted and worm-eaten creed which we had received by tradition 
from our venerable forefathers, and without perceiving that 
a single shade of doubt or uncertainty had been cast over 
those luminous truths which had beamed upon us from the 
sacred volume, and which had hitherto safely conducted us 
through life's weary pilgrimage, and even shed a gleam of 
light to cheer us on our passage through the dark regions of 
futurity. 

By the foregoing observations, we do not mean to throw 
out the slightest imputation upon the talents or attainments 
of the respectable author of this work, or in the smallest de- 
gree detract from his well-merited reputation. We should 
throw down our pen, and at once relinquish our undertaking, 
if we thought, that in furnishing an answer to his objections 
to what we deem sacred and immutable truths, we should 
imbibe any of the odium theologicum, which is said to be the 
fruit of religious controversy, or even be tempted to under- 
rate the pretensions and disparage the fame of a writer 
whose productions have reflected honour upon the taste and 



8 



literary character of his country. Dr. C. writes with great 
perspicuity, correctness, and beauty, and pours out his 
thoughts upon every subject that conies under review, with 
unwonted and faulty diffuscness indeed, but, at the same time, 
with vehemence and force, and sometimes with no inconsid- 
erable share of magnificence. His dissertations cannot be al- 
lowed the merit of being profound, and are certainly deficient 
in that clearness of method, accuracy, and precisionof thought, 
and conclusive force of argument which we have a right to 
require of one who undertakes to inveigh against established 
doctrines, decry great institutions, and subvert old founda- 
tions ; but, at the same time, he discovers no small share of 
those qualifications that form an original, interesting, and ac- 
complished writer and orator. His comprehension is large, 
his cast of mind liberal and philosophical, his invention fer- 
tile, his imagination elegant, he has a plentiful store of learn- 
ing, although of the lighter kind, and his style, although too 
artificial and florid, is flowing, harmonious and eloquent. Be- 
sides these excellencies, which have given him well-merited 
popularity, and extensive reputation, and which we most 
cheerfully accord him ; there is apparent in his productions a 
prevailing love of God and man, a vein of sympathy and hu- 
manity towards his whole race, an admiration of all that is 
great and good in human character and conduct, an ardent 
spirit of patriotism and attachment to the cause of liberty, 
and to crown all, a fervent aspiration after some better things 
than have yet been attained both for himself and mankind; 
which taken all together constitutes a charm that attracts us to 
his person, and strongly binds us to him in heart and affec- 
tions. In perusing his works, we not only are pleased with 
the writer, but become personally attached to the man, and 
desire to be numbered among his intimate acquaintances, 
and confidential friends. Were the writer of this vindication 
under the impression that any thing which shall escape from 
him, would deprive him of the esteem and friendship of so 
amiable an author, and could he release himself from the ob- 
ligations of what he deems a solemn and imperative duty, he 
would not hesitate in arresting himself in the commence- 
ment; and even the apprehension of such a result, might dis- 
courage him from the attempt, did he not feel himself propel- 
led to the undertaking by considerations too powerful to leave 
him an entire liberty of choice, as to the course he should 
pursue. Would that it may be our lot to carry conviction 
borne to his understanding upoij those momentous subjects 



g 



which it is our province to discuss ! Would that we could 
have the satisfaction of beholding him as distinguished a 
champion of the true faith, as he has rendered himself of that 
which we cannot but deem the false one! 



DISSERTATION II. 

Non, enim, tam auctoritas in disputando, quam rationis mbmenta qtiaerendoL 
sunt. Cic, de not. Deorum. 



Upon commencing the perusal of this volume of Dr. C. 
the first thought that struck our mind, was the conclusive 
proof which it furnishes of the vast advances mankind have 
made, during a few past centuries, in the principles of tolera- 
tion, and of both religious and political freedom. How admi- 
rable is that state of moral feeling among a community, and 
how inestimable those political, civil, and religious institu- 
tions, which can allow us to listen, without alarm or appre- 
hension, and even with calm composure arising out of a con- 
sciousness of power to meet and avert all evil consequences, 
not only to an undisguised and unrestrained declaration of 
sentiments, directly at variance with those truths which we 
have long regarded as consecrated maxims, but also to a bold 
attack upon them, and the most vehement and virulent invec- 
tives hurled against them? We scarcely know whether our 
feelings and conceptions are a just and accurate criterion by 
which to judge in such matters, but it presents to our mind an 
interesting and even sublime spectacle. Vast, indeed, is the 
contrast between this state of things, and that scene which 
was presented to view within the pale of the christian church 
in the times of Roger Bacon, of Wickliffe, of Luther, and of 
Gallileo. In those evil days, and among enslaved nations, to 
make successful experiments in philosophy was to deal with 
Demons, to assert the true theory of nature, was heresy for 
which nothing but imprisonment and death could make ade- 
quate atonement, and to dispute the supremacy of the Pope, 
or call in question the most corrupt principles and atrocious 
practices of the church, was sure to attract upon the head of 
the offender the fierv thunderbolts of the Vatican. And even 



10 



at tnis enlightened period, signal as are the victories which 
the revival of learning and reformation in religion by their 
united force, and constant action have achieved, and great 
as is the progress which mankind have made in refinement, 
humanity and toleration, in how many christian countries, 
would the declaration of those opinions which are avowed by 
Dr. C. expose him to the tortures of the inquisition, or the 
more fatal torments of an auto de fe ? Great, indeed, is the 
victory which Luther has achieved! Illustrious the triumph 
which Cranmer, Calvin, and their noble compeers in reforma- 
tion, have obtained ! and inestimable the blessings which 
they have conferred upon mankind ! Honored be their mem- 
ories, and ever sacred the maxims of truth and liberty, which 
they have transmitted to us. We are apt, it has been said, to 
flatter the age and country in which we live ; and some al- 
lowance must be made in such cases to the illusions of that 
fond deceiver self-love, but certainly after all due abatements 
from our superiority on this score, it cannot be an over- ween- 
ing vanity, to assert that we have reason to congratulate our- 
selves, that we live in such an era, and in such a country. 
Never was there a period in the history of mankind, in which 
reason was more unshackled in its operations, and in which 
truth could more advantageously contend with error in the 
fair field of argument and discussion. We cannot but anti- 
cipate the most happy results from this unexampled state of 
things to our own country, and ultimately to mankind at 
large. And if that maxim so often repeated, be founded in 
immutable truth, and be not the mere watchword of party 
and prejudice, that magna est Veritas et prevalebit; we fear 
not, that whatever doctrines of Christianity were, in truth and 
sincerity, promulged by its founder and his illustrious coad- 
jutors, will, after a conflict in the fair field of controversy, ul- 
timately triumph; while those principles and practices in the 
several systems now prevalent, which are erroneous and de- 
fective, upon thorough scrutiny, however at present fortified 
by power, and sustained by authority, will be finally expos- 
ed, repudiated, and utterly exploded. We will not allow our- 
selves to doubt, that by a thorough winnowing in discussion, 
the good and sound seeds of divine truth, will be finally sep- 
arated from all the chaff of error and abuse. May the great 
Father of lights and fountain of all wisdom, grant that this 
may be the result in that free, prosperous, and happy country 
in which our lot is cast ! 

Let it not; however, be imagined for a moment, that the 



11 



sentiments which we have expressed above, arise out of any 
indifference to the truth, any secret tendency towards latitu- 
dinarian principles, or any deficiency in that zeal with which 
the bosom of every christian should be animated, when his re- 
ligion is attacked, and, which moreover, should propell him, 
under all circumstances, and in all situations of life, earnestly 
to contend for the " faith once delivered to the saints. " It is, 
probably, because we have the habitual conviction deeply 
rooted in our mind, that "that form of sound words," con- 
tained in scripture, has been transmitted to us from Heaven, 
bears along with it the authenticating signet of divine autho- 
rity, and, of course, partakes of the characteristick perma- 
nence and immutability of its author, that we cannot allow 
ourselves to be disquieted with any doubts or apprehensions 
concerning its final destination, whatever may be the vicissi- 
tudes to which it is exposed, or opposition it may encounter. 
" If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught ; 
but, if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." We allow 
therefore, to Dr. C. the most unbounded freedom of animad- 
version and enquiry, and the utmost daring in attack upon 
the church, which he has thought proper to assume, however 
sacred and venerable we may consider all its principles and 
practices ; but let it be understood that we shall crave, in our 
turn, a similar indulgence. Hanc veniam damus petimusque 
vicissim. We shall declare our sentiments upon these subjects, 
candidly, fully, and without reserve or extenuation. While we 
claim no title to exemption from the ascertained laws of con- 
troversial warfare, or from the rules of politeness, courtesy, 
and decorum, and desire to meet an opponent of the Church 
in that spirit of meekness and gentleness which becomes our 
profession, we must be allowed to assail what we deem egre- 
gious and pestilential errors — errors, which in our estimation 
at least, should they become prevalent, would sap the founda- 
tions of Christianity, prove destructive to the vital interests 
of our great Republick, extinguish the glows of the most ex- 
alted piety, and blight the best hopes of mankind, in somewhat 
more of warmth, earnestness, and vehement solicitude, than 
would be expected of the ordinary essayist in pursuing his 
airy speculations for the amusement and instruction of his 
reader, or of the philosopher in prosecuting his calm enqui- 
ries into the constitution and laws of nature. We have as 
yet, thank God ! been infected with no sceptical .doubts about 
that religion in whose rudiments we were instructed in early 
life, nor ever been sensible of that involuntary incredulity, 



12 



which free- thinkers tell us, is the besetting sin of minds of a 
liberal and philosophical cast. After a protracted and in some 
degree, laborious excursion through some of the diversified 
walks of human science, we have returned from these intel- 
lectual toils so little inflated with the acquisitions which have 
been made, and with such moderate calculations of what the 
human mind, when most richly endowed and advantageously 
exerted, is capable of attaining, that we are sensible of no 
temptation to think ourselves wise above what is written, or 
disinclined to take refuge from the endless uncertainties of 
reason, and the doubtful disputations of the schools, in the 
sublime discoveries of revelation. We regard religion as a 
subject too vitally important to the best interests of mankind, 
and, more especially, to the successful progress and prosper- 
ous issue of a free Government, such as w r e enjoy, which is 
entirely dependent upon the publick feelings, and publick man- 
ners for its very existence, as well as permanent operation, 
to be indifferent about those models of doctrine and discipline 
which shall be introduced among us. We cannot partake of 
Dr. C's. indifference to articles of faith and forms of worship, 
since we are assured, that among all the moral causes that 
operate to form the characters of nations, none are more pow- 
erful than these. Nothing tends more than systems of faith, 
and forms of worship) to influence the modes of thinking, 
the habits, the principles, and manners of Nations, to elevate 
them to greatness and renown, or sink them into insignifi- 
cance and contempt ; to break down their spirit of liberty and 
independence, or to raise, support, and exalt it; and in a 
word, to render them wise, just, humane, intelligent, refined, 
or ignorant, prejudiced, base, unjust, and cruel. If we did 
not, therefore, feel solicitude about that model of a religion 
which we would communicate to this Nation, on account of 
God, truth, the everlasting salvation of our fellow-creatures, 
we should deeply feel it from our fervent desire to promote 
its freedom, prosperity, and greatness. God grant! that our 
Country may obtain that kind of freedom which the Gospel 
of Christ bestows upon a Nation when imbibed in all its 
quickening and purifying influences, and, then, she will be 
free indeed ! ! 



13 



DISSERTATION III. 

Tu quid ego, et populus mecum desideret, audi. 

We shall now proceed, from these preliminary disquisi- 
tions, to a consideration in due order, of the several treatises 
of Dr. Ch., as far as they contain any thing which has refer- 
ence to religion, leaving to politicians the task of determining 
the merits of the rest. We shall state his views upon the sev- 
eral topicks referred to, as much as is practicable, in his own 
words, and then endeavour to expose the unsoundness of ma- 
ny of his principles, and the fallacies of his reasoning. His 
first treatise is a well written critique, upon the life and wri- 
tings of John Milton. He was led to the composition of this 
review, it appears, by the recent discovery and publication, 
in England, of a tract upon Christian doctrine, by this cele- 
brated Poet. In this piece, he expresses great personal satis- 
faction, and congratulates the publick, upon their unexpected 
good fortune, in finding a work written upon these topicks, 
by one who had attained such well merited reputation from 
his poetick productions. In reference to this point, we trust, 
that we shall not subject ourselves to the suspicion of preju- 
dice, or charge of illiberality, in declaring, that although we 
yield to no one in our admiration of the performances of that 
inimitable poet, and partake of all the enthusiasm with which 
his panegyrist has celebrated his praises, yet, we must con- 
fess that our sensations upon receiving information of this 
newly discovered tract, were very different. Unrivalled in 
excellence as we always deemed the poetry of Milton, well- 
furnished as he is allowed to have been in all the science and 
literature to which he had access, in his times, and altogether 
unequalled as were his genius and attainments, we must con- 
fess, we could not but be sensible of some of the prejudices of 
Plato, upon this subject, however unjust to the inspired fra- 
ternity, and to think, that if a poet had ventured upon an un- 
dertaking of this nature, he would disappoint the publick ex- 
pectation, impair his own exalted reputation, and in all pro- 
bability, deface the beauty and distort all just proportions in 
the features of that system of divine truth which he under- 
took to delineate. All mankind are not formed for the same 
thing, no one however uncommon his parts is formed for 
great excellence in all things, and happy is he who can attain 



I 



14 

to the highest distinction in any one art or science. When 
the most illustrious minds travel out of those spheres of action 
in which they have been accustomed to move, and within 
whose limits they have attentively examined every object of 
research, descried every production of the soil, and rifled 
every precious gem, and launch into new and unexplored re- 
gions, like planets wandering from their orbits, they are lia- 
ble to be borne into the illimitable space of error, to distances 
which are increased in a due proportion to their magnitude 
and rapidity. The highest orders of understanding only, are 
fitted to establish fundamental principles, or propound ele- 
mentary precepts in any art or science, and with these it is 
the business of a life of study and contemplation, to trace 
these principles to their deep foundations in truth and cer- 
tainty. It requires the life of a Newton and a Locke to dis= 
cover and collect the leading maxims of natural philosophy 
and Metaphysicks, of a Montesquieu, and a Burke to unfold 
the great lessons of political wisdom, of a Puffendorf and a 
Blackstone, to ascertain the codes of international and mu- 
nicipal law, and of a Clarke and Stillingfleet, the Newton 
and Locke of theological science, to collect and establish the 
fundamental principles of natural and revealed religion. 
These illustrious men, in their respective spheres, spent their 
lives at their several tasks, with the keenest penetration ex- 
amined upon all sides, the different subjects which came be- 
fore them for investigation, dived into their lowest depths, 
ascended all their altitudes, and explored their most hidden 
recesses. While one pursued the planets in their orbits, ano- 
ther penetrated the shadowy regions of the mind, ascertain- 
ing its phenomena and tracing the laws of its action. While 
some from the whole history of man, as a volume of moral 
experiment, deduced the lessons of political wisdom, others 
ascended from nature to nature's God, and from a contempla- 
tion of the character and attributes of this incomprehensible 
being, the relations in which he stands to his creatures, the 
displays he has made of himself in his works and his word, 
the evidences by which he has authenticated this revelation 
of his will and the constitution and laws of human nature ; es- 
tablished the great principles of natural and revealed religion. 
Now, will it not be admitted, after a single moment's delibe- 
ration, that these are tasks too arduous to be accomplished 
by any other than the most enlarged understandings, and by 
these, too, only when laboriously and exclusively devoted to 
their several departments, and that each of these tasks when 



15 



separately performed, is an affair in which a stranger should 
not, and cannot advantageously intermeddle ? In fact, the 
truth of the general observation, is still more strongly con- 
firmed by the experience of these illustrious men themselves, 
splendid lights of science, as they were in their separate de- 
partments. The issue of the attempts made by some among 
them to depart from those topicks which they had profoundly 
studied and thoroughly understood, and test the strength of 
their faculties in other and untried efforts, instead of afford- 
ing encouragement to these undertakings, should furnish suffi- 
cient warning to deter others from similar exertions. Newton 
would scarcely have been known to his posterity as a fallible 
man, had he never written his treatise upon the prophecies, 
inestimable as is that monument at once of his genius, his 
faith, and his piety. Locke was discomfited by Stillingfleet 
upon all theological points, in the controversy that was car- 
ried on between them ; and Stillingfleet was vanquished by 
Locke upon every topick which was strictly metaphysical. 
These illustrious men, displayed in that controversy, the in- 
teresting spectacle of two gigantick minds coming into con- 
flict, with force and skill so nicely poised, that each, in his 
turn, prevailed over his antagonist, upon those topicks which 
he had completely mastered, and in the discussion of which 
he was armed at all points. We need not be surprised, then, 
if the immortal author of Paradise Lost, matchless as was his 
skill in his divine art, and extensive as we allow his erudition 
to have been, when he enters the lists as a Theologian and 
Metaphysician, finds himself unable to sustain the high repu- 
tation he had previously acquired. Such a result was natu- 
rally to be expected. Although we would not say with Plato, 
that Poets should not be tolerated in Republicks, yet, with 
all due deference to their characters and admiration for their 
profession, we would maintain, that they are the last set of 
men in the world, whom we would dedicate to the task of 
framing systems of religion, of government or laws for man- 
kind. Their pursuits are entirely foreign to these offices, in 
the present advanced state of society, although it appears, 
that in the early ages of the world, they had a large share of 
the business. They proved themselves, then, to be such 
wretched bunglers at the trade, that in pity to mankind, as 
well as due justice to them, they should never be permitted 
to return to the same occupation. In reference to Milton, we 
are inclined to think, that there are few persons, who would 
agree with Dr. C. about his prose writings ; and who would. 



16 



not rather accede to the opinion of his great and good Biogra* 
pher concerning their characteristick properties. He does dis- 
play, indeed, in these performances, as m every thing that 
was touched by his inchanted hand, the great resources of his 
genius, the fertility of his invention, and an imagination which 
pours forth images in endless profusion ; but surely we allow 
our admiration of the author to bliitrd our understandings* 
and our partiality to the man greatiy to mislead our judg* 
ments, if we are insensible of the numerous and striking 
blemishes perceptible in his prose compositions. We do not 
deny, indeed, that excellent passages might be pointed 
out in them, strong ideas happily expressed, finely executed 
parts, and arguments ably conducted ; but, in general, it is 
certainly true, that his views appear crude and ill concocted, 
his images croud so thickly upon us as to obscure his subject, 
his reasoning is flimsy, and his style marked with all the im- 
perfections of that age of English literature, being harsh, ab- 
rupt, involved, and intricate. Let us not, however, spend a 
moment longer, in detecting deficiencies in the genius or pro- 
ductions of this divine poet, or in plucking a single plume 
from his towering an.d majestick brow. Our soul recoils from 
the task of making this slight sacrifice to correct taste and 
sound criticism. We rather take pleasure in participating all 
the enthusiasm with which Dr. C. has pronounced his eulogy. 
No mind can be so insensible as not to feel and acknowl- 
edge his magick power, and no heart is so incapable of emo- 
tion as not to have thrilled at his touch. Milton's ardent love 
of liberty, and supreme devotion to the welfare of his Coun- 
try, his magnanimity, piety, disinterestedness, and high ad- 
miration of all that can adorn and elevate his race, cannot 
be too greatly extolled, and will, in spite of any imperfec- 
tions in his character, or occasional obliquities in his conduct, 
hand his name down to posterity, crowned with unfading 
honors, and forever endear his memory to the patriots, sages, 
votaries of learning, and philanthropists who shall succeed 
him. 



17 



DISSERTATION IV. 

Quale per incertara Lunam, sub luce maligna, 

Est iter in sylvis- Virgil*, 



Let us now proceed to the consideration of this newly 
discovered tract of Milton, enquire into the opinions which 
are maintaned in it, examine the claims which Dr. C. lays to 
the author as an advocate of Unitarianism, and determine to 
what extent those claims will avail him, in the decision of 
questions at issue between the two contending parties. He 
regards it as a subject of " gratitude to God, that he has rais- 
ed up in Milton, an illustrious advocate of the long-obscured 
doctrine of the Divine Unity." "We can now, he says, bring 
forward the three greatest and noblest minds of modern 
times, and we may add, of the christian era, as witnesses to 
that great truth, of which in our humbler and narrower 
sphere, we desire to be the defender. Our Trinitarian adver- 
saries are forever ringing in our ears the names of Fathers 
and Reformers. We take Milton, Locke, and Newton, and 
place them in our front, and want no others to oppose to the 
whole array of great names on the opposite side.'* Of the 
foundation of the claims tendered by Dr. C. to Newton, 
Locke, and Clarke, as the advocates of his doctrine, we shall 
speak in due time, but, at present, we confine our observa- 
tions solely to Milton. And, in the first place, really upon any- 
calm, impartial, and rational view of this subject, it does 
not appear to us to be a just cause of gratitude to God, that 
any one should be. the advocate of the same opinions with 
our own, who notoriously broaches and maintains doctrines^ 
in the highest degree absurd and mischievous. Not to con- 
sider for the present, the pernicious and monstrous errors Mil- 
ton maintains in this tract ; for example, "that God and man 
are mere pieces of mechanism, and of course, strictly speak- 
ing, there is no such thing as a soul in either, distinct from 
his material organization" — " that God exists under a human 
form" — and that there are " three Gods or Divine Beings." 
Waving these points, we say, for the moment ; what weight 
can we assign to the authority of that man, who maintains 
that " polygamy is allowed in holy scripture," — " that the law 
of Christ admits of divorce, when the parties are dissatisfied, 
8 



18 

with each other" — that the scriptures are an uncertain 
guide to truth and duty, and that the lessons which they 
teach may be superseded by the teachings of the spirit with- 
in ourselves" — " that the powers of the clergy are a usurpa- 
tion, and all succession in the sacred office is nugatory" — and 
to go no farther, "the commandment to observe the Sabbath in 
the old testament is absolved in the new." This list of Mil- 
ton's errors might be extended, but we presume that what we 
have already stated of the oscillations of his intellect, will 
lead every reasonable man, by the time he has run over them, 
to the conclusion, that whatever may be the pretensions of 
the great poet, in other respects, at least in ecclesiastical af- 
fairs, his mind, in its eccentrick movements through the hem- 
isphere of knowledge, was as likely to light upon error — and 
upon pernicious error, too, as upon the most sound and salu- 
tary truth. Upon occasion of a quarrel with his first w T ife, he 
drew up an address to Parliament, in which he attempted to 
show that the Gospel allowed of divorces when the parties, 
on account of disagreement in temper and dispositions, could 
not live happily together ; a doctrine, which, had it been lis- 
tened to by that venerable Legislature, an incorporated hi to 
their system of jurisprudence, would have occasioned mis- 
chiefs to England, for which the labors of one hundred Mil- 
tons, with all his poetick powers, could never have made her 
an adequate requital. If Dr. C. can claim this Poet, as an 
advocate of his scheme, so might the Anthropomorphite, 
the Polygamist, the abettor of unlicensed divorce, the enemy 
of the christian Sabbath, and many other wild and senseless 
fanaticks, whose sole merit consists, in having engendered a 
pestilent heresy in their brain. We are, therefore, seriously 
apprehensive, that if the Dr. can make good his claim to Mil- 
ton's authority, it will scarcely be worth any labour of the 
mind to obtain it. His authority, in such cases, has been so 
lavished and prostituted as to have lost its value. If he should 
place him, then, in the front rank of Unitarians, we are sore- 
ly afraid, that when they saw him so ready to take the lead 
in every idle freak, they would not greatly relish the choice 
they had made, nor feel themselves highly honored by the 
guidance of such a chieftain. 

So much for the authority of Milton, as a favourer of Uni- 
tarianism, admitting that he was so. Cicero complains of 
Epicurus, that while in words he admitted the existence and 
supremacy of the Gods, in things, or in principles, he denied 
their existence and agency. Would any advocate of the being 



19 



of God, under these circumstances have thought the authority 
of Epicurus, available as a support to his doctrines? We 
presume not. Precisely similar to the opinion of Epicurus, in 
regard to the existence of a Supreme Being, is that of Milton 
in reference to the Divinity of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, 
except, indeed, that his premises lead to a conclusion which 
lie rejects, while the premises of Epicurus led to the contra- 
dictory of the conclusion which he allowed. In words, Milton 
denies to these incomprehensible persons of the God-head the 
honor of Divinity, while he assumes premises that lead irre- 
sistibly, first, to the polytheism of the pagan mythology, 
then, to the system of tritheism, or the existence of three dis- 
tinct Divinities. We shall conclude this dissertation with an 
attempt to demonstrate these two distinct propositions. 

First, we assert that Milton's premises lead irresistibly to 
the introduction of all the abominations of pagan polytheism 
and idolatry. Dr. C. himself allows, that this poet is classed 
among the number of those hereticks, who, in ecclesiastical 
history, are denominated anthropomorphites, or who conceiv- 
ed the Deity , to exist under a human and corporeal form.. 
This the greaf p#et expressly asserts. Now, it requires but a 
small share of nletaphysical abstraction, to perceive, that if 
we suppose God to exist under a human form, we, at once, 
divest him of some of his most essential and glorious perfec- 
tions, and render it indispensably necessary, that there should 
be many Deities to administer the affairs of the Universe. 
The reader will, no doubt, at once discern the inseparable 
connection between these ideas. For, how shall he who is 
composed of parts, as of a head, a breast, legs and arms, and 
is, of consequence, limited in dimensions, in the language of 
the philosophical poet, "extend through all extent ? The met- 
aphysician' thinks that he can demonstrate, that matter 
without form cannot possibly be infinite : much less can it be 
so, when reduced to a limited space, and adjusted to finite 
proportions. Such a being, therefore, could not possess the at- 
tribute of omnipresence, which is indispensable to Deity, 
Again. If in the language of the same master poet, before re- 
ferred to, we can conceive of a God in human shape, " opera- 
ting unspent," he could not possess the perfections of omnipo- 
tence and omniscience. How could his power or wisdom ex- 
tend to those portions of unbounded space, over which he * 
could not travel in a less portion of duration than eternity, if 
he moved with the velocity, not only of lightning, but of the 
most rapid thought V 9 But enough upon a point, on which* 



20 



perhaps, it will be deemed useless and impertinent to attempt 
to reason. A Jupiter tonans, who, although living upon 
" Olympus' top," and partaking of human imperfections, con- 
trols all nature by his nod, and possesses infinite wisdom, may 
be a Being suited to the rude conceptions of a Barbarous peo- 
ple, and afford amusement to the fancy of one more civilized, 
while his honours remain undisputed by philosophers and 
statesmen, from delicacy to vulgar superstition ; but when 
reason is left free to act, must ever be exploded as a meta- 
physicial monster, by all who are accustomed to trace the 
necessary concatenation of ideas, or settle the boundaries of 
truth. We perceive then, that Milton, in the outset of this 
enquiry, affords but slender ground of expectation, that he is 
to become an able and successful champion of the Divine Uni- 
ty, when we find him allowing the truth of a proposition, 
which at a single blow, would not only utterly subvert it, but 
lead to the introduction of the 30,000 Gods of the Heathen 
world ; and in fact, would render not only 30,000, but an innu- 
merable rabble of Divinities indispensable to the Universe. If 
such an author is to be supposed a distinctly ascertained ene- 
my to the Divinity of our Blessed Lord, in the lowest sense 
of the term Divinity, while he exhibits such puerile imbecilli- 
ty upon this awfully mysterious and sublime subject, we 
could not find it in our hearts or apprehensions to regard him 
as a very formidable antagonist. For the excellence of his 
poetry, as well as his many fine qualities, intellectual and mo- 
ral, we would very cheerfully accord him the honors of a 
pagan apotheosis, and assign him as elevated a rank, as his 
ambition could aspire to, or his exquisite imagination con- 
ceive, among the Gods in human shape, which Le should fash- 
ion to suit his own poetick taste, as well as that of his great 
model of antiquity ; but, highly as we estimate his extraordi- 
nary endowments* and liberal as we would become in the 
distribution of favours to one who has so often supplied us 
with the richest of those enjoyments of which our nature is 
susceptible, we must prove so faithful to ourselves, and true 
to those sentiments with which nature has inspired us, as to 
refuse him the privilege of forming a God for us, or modelling 
our conceptions of the Divine character and attributes. We 
greatly prefer to bestow the admiration of our minds, and the 
homage of our hearts, upon the God of Clarke, Newton, Locke 
and the idolatrous Trinitarians. 

In the next place, we have affirmed, that while Milton 
does, indeed, speak in express terms against the Divinity of 



21 



our Blessed Lord, and support his opinions by arguments, 
yet, when he comes to state the doctrine of the scriptures 
upon the subject, in the very language of the sacred records, 
he ascribes attributes to Christ that belong essentially to De- 
ity, and of course, to all intents and purposes, renders him a 
Divine Being. In the same way he confers Divinity upon the 
Holy Spirit, and establishes a system of Tritheism. We shall 
confine our observations solely to the second person of the God- 
head ; inasmuch as should the reader find the correctness 
of our remarks, made evident in its application to the one, he 
will feel no inclination to dispute their accuracy in reference to 
the other, but will rather deem this consideration a satisfac- 
tory presumption in its favour. To come to our proof: Milton, 
both in this tract upon christian doctrine and in his Paradise 
Lost, the last a faithful transcript of the first, and merely altered 
by its poetick dress, ascribes Divine attributes to Christ, and 
of consequence converts him into Deity, and confirms all his 
allegations by apt and indisputable quotations from the sacred 
writings. Thus he asserts, that the Father communicates to 
the Son, not only life, authority, power to control other things, 
of remitting sins, of preservation, of renovation, of confer- 
ring gifts, of fulfilling the mediatorial office, of judging all 
things, of resuscitation from the dead, w hich properties con- 
fer upon him a rank in the scale of Being scarcely less than 
Divine ; but the properties of omniscience, omnipotence, of 
omnipresence, and moreover demands for him Divine honors, 
and invests him with Divine glory. Now, these are absolute- 
ly incommunicable attributes of the Divine Being, and quali- 
ties that can adhere only to a single subject. What signifies 
it, that Milton disputes in words the Divine Nature of Christ, 
when he admits the infallibility of scripture, and alleges that 
in the scriptures these attributes are ascribed to Christ? 
Truth is not to be made the sufferer because his poetick mind 
cannot trace these premises to their legitimate conclusion. 
He thought, no doubt that these qualities only rendered the 
Saviour a sort of subordinate or inferior Divinity, which 
would serve him a good purpose as a part of his machinery 
in his epick poem, but the Metaphysician knows that these at- 
tributes belong only to Deity. We shall see that his poem of 
Paradise Lost is the exact counterpart of the tract, and, if 
any thing, tends more strongly to shew the Divinity of Christ. 
In book 6th, of Paradise Lost, he says:— 

And thus the filial God-head answering, said." 

It is not readily conceived that Milton could designate 



22 



Christ as the " filial God-head," with any discoverable mean 
ing, unless he was sound in the faith, and conceived of him as 
the second person, in the adorable Trinity. Had he not writ- 
ten his poem at too late a period of life to admit of the sup- 
position, we should feel inclined to think, that his opinions 
had undergone a change, or to doubt the genuineness of the 
tract upon christian doctrine. May not that work, after all, 
be a supposititious production ? We know not what the Lite- 
rati of England think upon this topick, but this passage and 
some others of a similar description in that performance, a- 
wake some doubts in our mind about this newly discovered 
work. We must think that if Milton at the time of compo- 
sing his Paradise Lost, had been as warmly opposed to the 
Divinity of Christ, as he was when he wrote. the tract upon 
christian doctrine, he would not have allowed his poetick li- 
cense to betray him into the use of expressions which might 
be construed into a belief that Christ was a Divine Being. 
We must leave this suggestion, however, in the hands of those 
who enjoy better opportunities for deciding the question, 
Again in the same poem : — 

Beyond compare the son of God was seen, 
Most glorious : in him all his Father shone, 
Substantial!)- expressed. 

These last expressions) " substantially expressed/' exactly 
corresponding to the language ' , he quotes from scripture, " in 
him dwelt all the fulness of the God-head bodily," and " the 
express image of his, person," can mean nothing which is con- 
ceivable, but that he was either the second person of the God- 
head or a second Deity. Again : — 

Effulgence of my glcry, Son beloved, 
Son, in whose face invisible, is -beheld 
Visibly, what by Deity I am, . 
And in whose hand, what by decree, I do ; 
Second Omnipotence. 

Second Omnipotence ; Here we see that Milton, as in his 
tract,.ascribes omnipotence to Christ. Now, this is an incom- 
municable attribute of God. Omnipotence can be predicated 
of but one subject, and to assert the possession of it by two 
Beings, is a perfect absurdity. One can scarcely avoid think- 
ing that this absurdity could not have escaped the penetration 
of Milton, and that he has here reference to the mystery of 
the Trinity, and recognises in the method of poetick license, 



23 



the possession of Almighty power by both Persons in the God- 
head As a poetick expression it may be allowed to pass un - 
censured, but is a philosophical absurdity. He either alludes to 
the orthodox doctrine, in which both persons possess the 
same omnipotence, or his principle would render Christ a se- 
cond Divinity. Does not this whole quotation again throw dis- 
credit upon the tract lately called forth from its long and 
strange slumber? Although that work, in many of its features 
undoubtedly bears a striking similitude to its reputed Father, 
yet we do frankly avow, that to our humble vision, it presents 
itself in such a questionable shape, that we do not wish to 
speak to it, nor hear its answer. He must have been a bung- 
ling artist who would not imprint upon it some resemblance 
of its Parent. Let me be excused for these conjectures, per- 
haps idle ones. Again in Paradise Lost : 

But whom send I to judge them ? whom but thee, 
Vice-gerent son ? To thee I have transferred, 
All judgment; whether in Heaven, Earth, or Hell. 

Heaven, Earth, and Hell denote the whole Universe. No 
being who was not omniscient would be suited to judge the 
Universe, or could possibly fulfil the task. Again : 

Towards the right hand, on the Son, 
Blazed forth unclouded Deity ; He full 
Resplendent, all his Father manifest 
Expressed. 

Can he be less than Deity, who expresses all his Father 
manifest ? Finally : 

Reign forever and assume 
Thy merits ; under thee as Head Supreme, 
Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce, 

All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide, 

In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth, in Hell. 

Could Milton suppose that the Father would demand Di- 
vine honors for any Being, who was not God '' It is incredi- 
ble. Such are his doctrines in reference to Christ, and simi- 
lar are held in reference to the Holy Spirit. If we trace his 
principles to their legitimate consequences, he would intro- 
duce the doctrine of Tritheism. Opposed from conviction to 
the doctrine of the Trinity, he was too, sincere an enquirer, 
and too honest a man to tamper with the sacred text, or mis- 
represent its import, and they involved him in this inconsis- 



24 



tency. Does not this consideration irrefragably prove, that 
the language of scripture must lead to the acknowledgment 
of this sublime mystery, when received in its genuine purity 
and perfect integrity ? Besides, let us not fail to observe, that 
after all these magnificent conceptions which xMilton gives us 
of the character and offices of Christ, what would he have 
thought of those who degrade him to the condition of a mere 
man, and discriminate him from the rest of his species, by 
simply allowing that he was a divinely commissioned mes- 
senger? He would have shrunk with horror from such a de- 
gradation of the Saviour. He approximates in his opinions 
much nearer to Trinitarians than to Unitarians ; and can be 
more rightfully claimed by the first, than the last, as an adhe- 
rent to their party. It cannot be denied, that this Tract fur- 
nishes additional confirmation of orthodox doctrines. Milton 
be placed in the front ranks of those who make Christ a mere 
man, deny his atonement and the saving influence of his spir- 
it!! What? He who in commenting upon the sacred scrip- 
tures allows that these magnificent titles appertain to him, 
" The son of man, who is in heaven," while he was present 
at the time to those who heard the declaration ; " where two 
or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of 
them," " lo ! I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
World ;" " no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he 
to whom the Son will reveal him;" " he knew all men and 
w T hat was in man;" " he knew all things;" " I am he that 
searcheth the reins and the heart !" Could he have allowed 
himself without horror, to be numbered among those who 
sink the Saviour to the insignificance of a mere human crea- 
ture, who ascribes to him all the most glorious attributes of 
Deity, and in conformity with this conception, in his immor- 
tal poem, represents him, as the " filial Godhead," the " Se- 
cond Omnipotence," the "substantial expression of his Father," 
to whom all knees should bow, of things in Heaven, and things 
upon the Earth ? Milton would have deemed it the highest 
blasphemy, to have thought or spoken in such terms of the 
Redeemer, of him, who, he acknowledges, offered an atone- 
ment for the sins of all mankind, sanctifies them by his spirit 
and bestows upon them the blessing of everlasting life. How- 
ever reluctant he might have felt, to bestow upon him the 
same substance, and make him the same Being with the Fa- 
ther, he made him in his conceptions, second only in dignity 
to that sublime object, which hi its practical operation upon 
the heart and affections, is nearly, if not entirely, the same 



25 



thing. There is a wide distinction in these cases, to which it 
is important to advert. Christianity would lose comparatively 
little of its practical efficacy upon those, who like Milton, 
exalt Christ to a rank next to that of Divinity, or to an infe- 
rior sort of Divinity, amounting to the same thing as confer- 
ring upon him Supreme Deity at once, with the greater 
part of mankind, who are incapable of making nice distinc- 
tions of this nature. But it deprives Christianity of the whole 
force of its influence, of its vital power, of its life-giving en- 
ergy to degrade its author to the condition of a frail, imper- 
fect, and fallible man. From the moment that this doctrine 
shall be universally received in the christian church, the can- 
dle of the Lord within it will expire in its socket. 



DISSERTATION V. 



Cum multse res in philosophia nequaquam satis adhuc explicate sint, turn per- 
difficilis, Brute, (quod tu minime ignoras) et obscura questio est de natura 
Deorum ; quae et ad agnitionem animi pulcherrima est, et ad moderandam 
religionein necessaria. Cie. de not. Deorum, 



In our last dissertation, we clearly ascertained, we trust, 
in what sense Milton could be justly regarded as occupying 
the front rank among the advocates of Unitarianism, and 
what advantages that fraternity are likely to derive from the 
services of their recently commissioned commander, in the 
conduct of their troops, and the achievment of victories and 
conquests. We cannot relinquish the subject, with satisfac- 
tion to our own minds, until we have paid some slight atten- 
tion to the metaphysicks of Milton, and also of Dr. Channing, 
in his review of the recently discovered treatise. As the Poet 
has hinted at some arguments that might stagger the faith, 
and embarrass the minds of some christians who shall peruse 
it, it may be worth while, before proceeding further, in this 
investigation, to attempt a refutation of them. First, then, 
Milton, in this tract, undertakes to act the Metaphysician, 
although it is evident, he had better have confined himself to 
4 



26 



his native element, the cultivation of the muse. He thus rea- 
sons : " The Son was begotten of the Father in consequence 
of his decree, and not from necessity, (as he had before alleg- 
ed, and as we allow,) and therefore, within the limits of time, 
for the decree itself must have been anterior to the execution 
of the decree, as is sufficiently clear from the insertion of the 
word " to day." For a refutation of this assertion of Milton, 
as far as the language of scripture extends, we refer those 
who are interested in the controversy, to Dr. Clarke's " cath- 
olic doctrine of the Trinity/' or to Dr. Waterland's defence 
of the Divinity of Christ. In that treatise Dr. Clarke states 
the following propositions, which serve sufficiently to illus- 
trate this point. " The scripture in declaring the Son's deri- 
vation from the Father, never makes mention of any limita- 
tion of time, but always supposes and affirms him to have ex- 
isted with the Father before all Worlds." And again. " They 
therefore have also justly been censured, who taking upon 
them to be wise above what is written, and intruding into 
things which they have not seen ; have presumed to affirm, 
that there was a time when the Son was not." This settles 
the point as to the meaning and intent of holy writ, for Clarke 
establishes his inferences by sufficient proofs from the sacred 
writings. Now, as to the abstract argument of Milton, that 
the decree itself must have been anterior to the execution of 
it, this reasoning is just only when applied to human or finite 
agents, who operate in limited portions of duration or time, 
but has no application to God, and an eternal duration. He 
has but simply to decree, and the execution takes place if he 
chooses, without intervention of time and duration ; and if 
he eternally decreed the derivation of the Son from himself, 
his eternal derivation,* or his derivation from all eternity fol- 
lowed of consequence. Had Milton been instructed for a short 
time in the school of Clarke, Butler, or Waterland, he would 
have found those difficulties removed, which seem to have 
perplexed him, and caused his faith to oscillate into the re- 
gions of heterodoxy. His next attempt at argument is as rea- 
dily defeated. " A Being who is not self-existent cannot be 
God." This is true of an original and independent Being, as 
such Deity subsists by necessity, and of consequence must 
have existed from eternity. But does not apply to the case.of 
a derived Divinity, such as we believe the Second Person in 
"the Trinity. When by reason, we have proved that God must 
be self-existent, or exists from the necessity of his own nature, 
this is the utmost step to which we are conducted by the 



21 



light of nature. Then comes revelation to our aid, and, giv- 
ing further intelligence, informs us that this underived Deity 
gives rise to another Being, coeternal and coequal with him. 
This is a Being, not existing, strictly speaking, from the same 
necessity as the other Person of the God-head, but still Deity 
and Eternal. But Milton proceeds — " Now as the effect of 
generation (we like the term derivation better) is to produce 
something which shall exist independently of the generator, 
it follows that God cannot beget a coequal Deity, because 
unity and infinity are two of his essential attributes." Now, 
as the effect of generation is to produce something which shall 
exist independently of the generator." The Second Person in 
the God-head is so far independent of the Father, that he per- 
forms offices which are not to be ascribed to the Father. " God 
cannot beget a coequal Deity." Those who best comprehend 
the narrow limits of human understanding, will be least in- 
clined to pronounce dogmatically what God cannot, or can 
do, as he is aware of the presumptuous nature of the under- 
taking. Shall he who knows not how God can make a blade 
of grass germinate, or a flower blossom in the field, attempt 
to decide what God can or cannot produce ? It is true that 
the Deity cannot accomplish impossibilities, and it is an im- 
possibility, that the Deity should communicate to a Being 
different from himself the attributes of omnipresence, omni- 
potence, and the like. But that he may not give rise to a Per- 
son in the God-head, coequal and coeternal with himself, 
and constituting with a third Hypostasis, the one only God, 
human reason can never determine. But again says Milton : 
" Since the Son derives his essence from the Father, he is pos- 
terior to him." This would be true of all Finite objects ex- 
isting in time, and subject to vicissitudes, but does not apply 
to him, who is the same yesterday, to day, and forever. It is 
as easy to conceive of him as effusing the Son from all eternity, 
as from any portion of duration, and if it took place at any 
given point in duration, the Deity must have passed a previ- 
ous eternity w ithout the presence of his Son. When we pro- 
ceed backwards millions of years, we have approached no 
nearer towards the commencement of eternity, than when we 
have advanced an hour or a minute. But perhaps we have 
already allowed reason undue license in her attempts to illus- 
trate and comprehend this subject. It is unlike all others, as 
God is unlike all other Beings, and is incomprehensible. The 
Trinitarians, in their investigations of this subject, act in the 
genuine spirit of the Baconian philosophy. As that philoso- 



28 



phy directs us to proceed in our enquiries from an accurate 
observation of phenomena, to assign the causes which pro- 
duce them, and not expect to advance in the dark priori road, 
so in the examination of doctrines revealed to us by scripture, 
we should appeal to the sacred records themselves, and not 
presume that their authority is to be superseded by the ex- 
ercise of our contracted faculties. Reason informs us, in this 
case, that there is a God, and revelation only can assure us 
that his Unity is composed of a Trinity of Persons. How 
such a Deity can exist, or how three persons, or Hypostases 
can be united in the same substance or essence, it is utterly 
out of the power of the most enlarged intellect to comprehend. 
This no doubt is the process by which Theologians have been 
led to the invention of the term Trinity, not found in scrip- 
ture, and to the maintenance of this doctrine. They saw that 
the scriptures ascribed Divine attributes to three several 
agents, co-operating with each other in the works of creation, 
grace, and redemption ; and as the same inspired volume, at 
the same time, strongly insisted upon the Unity of God, there 
was no alternative left but the simple conclusion, that these 
three Principles or Agents must subsist in one subject, have the 
same properties, and be the same Deity. The Fathers at first 
differed in opinion, respecting the term that should be em- 
ployed to designate those agents, some preferring the denom- 
ination of natures, others that of persons, or hypostases, which 
last gained general prevalence, while all agreed that three 
agents subsisted in one substance. From a doctrine thus es- 
tablished in the word of God, they cannot be driven by the 
sophistries of reason, the clamours of ignorance and preju- 
dice, or the false pride of science. 

We shall conclude the present disquisition, by a slight re- 
ference to the metaphysicks of Dr. C's. review. In speaking 
of the opinion that Milton had advanced concerning the ori- 
gin of matter, who asserted that it flowed from the mind of 
the Deity, he observes, " This doctrine naturally led Milton 
to another, viz. that there is no ground for the supposed dis- 
tinctions between body and soul ; for if matter is an " efflux 
of the Deity, it is plainly susceptible of intellectual functions. " 
This inference of Dr. C. would be just, if Milton in his ac- 
count of the origin of matter had adhered to his system of 
A n t hropomor ph i t i sm , for, in this case, it would be presuma- 
ble, that the derived substance would partake of both the in- 
gredients of that compound substance from which it emi- 
mited. Under this view of the subject, there would have 



29 



been no difficulty at all to Milton, in tracing matter to 
its origin, since a portion of it already subsisted in the 
Divine Being, and nothing more was to be done than to 
effuse it from his person, to occasion its distribution through 
space. But this elegant writer, we doubt not, will remark, 
upon a moment's re-consideration of the subject, that Milton, 
before he arrives at this part of his treatise, seems to have lost 
sight of his suggestion, in the commencement, that God ex- 
ists under a human and corporeal form, and surely we all 
agree, that although it has the authority of a venerable Fa- 
ther of the Church in its favour, yet it was an offspring of.the 
brain, whose best fate was a still-birth. In accounting for the 
origin of matter, however, Milton evidently considers the 
Deity as a spiritual and active Being, while matter is the 
passive recipient of his action. Under this view, it does not 
follow, because matter is an " efflux of the Deity," that it is 
capable of mental operations. All the Ionick school, the first 
one founded in Greece, supposed mind to be the principle 
from which all things arose, and Aristotle considered the 
Universe as an eternal emanation from the Divine mind ; but 
they all agreed that these two substances were of different, 
and even opposite properties. If Milton, because matter was 
an efflux from the Deity, concluded that it was susceptible of 
intellectual operations, then, he must have made all the parts 
and particles of it, which we behold, capable of thought, which 
would be an extravagance in error into which this illustrious 
Poet never could have run. 

Again. Dr. C. says, " Since the time of Locke, the discus- 
sions of Philosophers have tended to unsettle our notions of 
matter, and no man is hardy enough now to say, what it is, or 
what it may not be." Here it would seem as. if the author 
intends to intimate, that Locke led the way in that ridiculous 
scepticism which denies the existence of a material world. 
We believe, although Locke in his essay does several times 
glance at this whimsy, Bishop Berkley deserves all the credit 
of reviving the old folly of Pyrrho, and recommending it by 
all the arts of sophistry ; and if the opinions of Philosophers 
in modern times have been unsettled about matter, the Pre- 
late is the Giant, who has subdued that old monster, vulgar 
prejudice, in favour of the real existence of sun, moon and 
stars. At all events, it is very certain that Mr: Locke has 
done nothing towards unsettling men's belief of matter, what- 
ever has been said upon that subject by those who have mis- 



30 



understood and misrepresented his writings.* It is true, 
that he never undertook to determine what it is, or what it 
may not be, since, for all that the greatest Philosophers 
know, or ever can know, as to its substance or internal essence, 
it may be, like the moon, green cheese, or like Lord Peter's 
brown loaf, made up of plumb, custard, pie, mutton or any 
thing else. But Mr. Locke, on this account, did not call its ex- 
istence in question; but did precisely what as a true Interpret- 
er of nature he ought to have done, and that is, make all our 
knowledge of matter to consist in our perceptions of its qua- 
lities, and our idea of it as a substance, or subsistence in na- 
ture, which is very obscure and inadequate ; while in regard 
to its real existence in rerum natura, he made our knowledge 
of that to depend upon the testimony of the senses. This is 
Locke's theory; and could he but have been successful in mak- 
ing his followers understand him, they would have perceived, 
we think, that it was a faithful interpretation of nature, and 
will be found sound philosophy, as long as the human mind 
shall possess the same properties as at present, be governed 
by the same laws, and exhibit similar phenomena. But, says 
the Dr. " The idealism of Berkeley, though it has never or- 



* The only circumstance by which Locke can be said to have given any 
eountenance to the ideal theory of Berkeley and Hume, is, that he sometimes 
represents the complex idea which weliave of any thing, as of a tree, a house, 
the sun, as constituting that thing; whereas, he evidently means that it consti- 
tutes, when we add to that compound notion, our knowledge of its real exist- 
ence in rerum natura, all that we know of that thing or object. This represen- 
tation is very easily comprehended, and Mr. Locke system is clear enough to 
those who do not wish to misinterpret him. But if Dr. Reid had given this sim- 
ple construction to the language of Locke, what would have become of all that 
beautiful account of the ideal theory of the Philosophers, with which he makes 
such a display? His reputation as a Philosopher, is founded upon his having 
detected this grand philosophical heresy in preceding writers, and as Mr. Locke 
was the one who led the way to these inquiries in modern times, it must be 
palmed upon him, or it would be thought to be totally without support or coun- 
tenance. It is in vain, that Mr. Locke explains himself, to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the unbiassed mind, by declaring that when he speaks of ideas, as ex- 
isting in things themselves, he means only that those powers or properties exist 
in things themselves, which cause such perceptions in us- This is very intelli- 
gible language, and completely relieves him from the charge of abetting the 
ideal Theory, since it recognises at once the real existence of things, as well as 
our perceptions of their qualities. But it would not have suited Dr. Reid's pur- 
pose to have allowed this; and it would be hard if a Philosopher may not resort 
to some of that artifice and contrivance, of which the rest of mankind so large- 
ly avail themselves, in order to rear a great name to himself. For a full illus- 
tration of this subject, the reader will excuse us for referring him to our 
" search of truth," as we have not time, and it does not comport with our ob- 
ject, to enter into a full discussion of it in this treatise. 



31 



ganized a sect, has yet sensibly influenced the modes of think- 
ing among metaphysicians ; and the coincidence of this sys- 
tem with the theory of certain Hindoo Philosophers, may 
lead us to suspect, that it contains some great latent truth, 
of which the European and Hindoo intellect, so generally at 
variance, have caught a glimpse." Perhaps, to those who 
are well-versed in the science of metaphysicks, and have 
taken full draughts of those deep waters, there is no pheno- 
menon which it has exhibited, of more easy solution than the 
system of Berkeley, and we may also add that of Hume. 
Cicero remarks, that there was no subject w hich was brought 
into discussion in the Grecian schools of philosophy, about 
which, besides the true doctrines which ought to be held, 
there was not broached every folly and error which the most 
fertile brain could engender. In the rise and early progress 
of every branch of science, except the strictly demonstrative, 
this wiH ever be the unavoidable result. To an evil of this 
kind, metaphysical science, from its very nature and object, 
is pre-eminently exposed. The principle itself, the mind, 
whose properties, operations and laws of action are to be 
traced, is of so thin and impalpable a texture, and acts in a 
region so shadowy and obscure, that it requires the closest 
application of thought to trace its progress and collect its 
laws. Here, then, is a noble field opened at once for the dis- 
play of parts, to dazzle the vulgar with brilliant theories, or 
awake their gaze of astonishment by glittering in paradox. 
As the first and simplest operation of the mind is perception, 
both external and internal, or sensation and reflection, the 
inquirer in this department must commence his investiga- 
tions, with ascertaining the process which is pursued by na- 
ture, in giving us our knowledge of the external and internal 
world. Now, as our acquaintance with matter is obtained 
through the intervention of the organs of sense, and as noti- 
ces are conveyed to the mind by actions occasioned in those 
organs, how easy becomes the task of maintaining, that all 
those perceptions which we have of the objects around us, 
might be occasioned by an immediate operation upon the mind 
alone exclusive of any actions upon the external sensories. This 
idea, if not before, would be suggested to us by what hap- 
pens in dreams, frenzies, affections of the brain, and the like. 
Now we have at once arrived at the theory, of Pyrrho and 
Berkeley and the Hindoo Philosophers, which simply denies 
an external world, of which we know nothing but what is de- 
rived from sensation, and resolves ail the whole train of phae- 



32 



nomena into successions of fleeting ideas and unsubstantial 
images. That this theory, however, is not likely to lead to 
any important discovery relative to the essence of matter or 
mind, and that if any latent truth lie hid under a veil in this 
part of the Creator's works it will never have that veil re- 
moved while man remains as he is at present, is perfectly cer- 
tain to us. The expectation of such a discovery is vain, and 
its search would be fruitless. And that a theory like that of 
Bishop Berkeley, should find its counterpart in the Hindoo 
schools of philosophy, is not more wonderful or singular, than 
that it should have found its prototype in the doctrines of 
Pyrrho, in Greece. Such facts only disclose to us the admi- 
rable uniformity of those laws that regulate the human mind. 
Have not all civilized nations been found engaged in the same 
or similar discussions in politicks, morals, religion, rhetorick 
and poetry ? Have they not broached and maintained simi- 
lar systems, and been embarrassed with similar difficulties ? 
The rules of epick poetry, in the times of Homer, were the 
same that guided Milton, Pope and Dryden ; and the princi- 
ples of dramatic writing, which were present to the minds of 
Sophocles and Euripides, in the composition of their trage- 
dies, were similar to those that regulated the fiery genius of 
Shakespeare. Dr. C. continues : " Matter is, indeed, a Pro- 
teus which escapes us at the moment we hope to seize it." 
Is not this as irrational an assertion, as if he had alleged that 
every woman was to her lover what Dido was to Eneas in the 
shades below, who disappeared from him at his approach? 
We do not find matter this Protean form. We seize the book, 
the chair which are now before us, and they remain quiet 
prisoners in our possession, without a struggle to escape, or 
an attempt to change their form. To what does all this tend, 
or whence have these mistakes arisen ? Has Dr. Brown's phi- 
losophy blinded the eyes of Philosophers and thinkers, and 
bereft them of their senses ? Again the Dr. continues : " Priest- 
ley was anxious to make the soul* material ; but, for this pur- 
pose, he was obliged to change matter from a substance to a 
power, that is, into no matter at all; so that he destroyed in 
attempting to diffuse it." We have been in the habit of think- 
ing, on the contrary, that Priestley came nearer to destroy- 
ing the soul, both here and hereafter, in attempting to mate- 
rialize it. We hope the learned author will excuse us, when 
we assert, that Priestley's system rather regarded the soul 
and all its furniture of faculties and principles, as so many 
powers superadded to a material substance. The essence of 



rtc> 

what in the schools is denominated materialism, consists in 
regarding all the operations of the mind as mere modes of 
motion, or actions of some kind, in our corporeal organs. 
Hence the vibrations and vibratiuncles of Hartley, to account 
for perception, abstraction, imagination, &c. The Dr. pro- 
ceeds, " Matter which seems to common people so intelligi- 
ble, is still wrapped in mystery." We much doubt whether the 
Philosopher and the vulgar differ so much about this subject 
as might be imagined. Philosophers think all plain about it 
with which the vulgar are concerned, that is, its outward pro- 
perties. And as to its inward essence or structure, the most 
ignorant of the vulgar would not suppose that very intelligi- 
ble or perceptible. But the Dr. asserts still more. " We know 
matter only by its relation to mind, or as an assemblage 0 f 
powers to awaken certain sensations; of its relation to God, 
we may be said to know nothing." A just philosophy should 
neither endeavour to extend our knowledge of real existen- 
ces beyond its due proportions, nor to contract it within its 
proper limits. It is certainly not correct to assert that we 
know matter only by its relation to mind, or as an assem- 
blage of powers to awaken certain sensations. By the testi- 
mony of the senses, we obtain at once our knowledge of the 
qualities of body, and of bodies themselves, as well as of their 
existence in nature. Thus of the book which is before me, 
we learn by our senses that there is such an object in nature, 
and that it has the properties of figure, extension, colour, hard- 
ness. We not only become informed of its properties, but 
that there is a real thing, or substance, which possesses those 
qualities. Of its essence or internal structure, we are cer- 
tainly ignorant, that structure of parts, for instance, which 
causes iron to be so different from gold. Philosophers have 
paved the way for the scepticism of Berkeley and Hume, by 
not recognising this circumstance in our knowledge, and by 
speaking as if we do not perceive things themselves, but mere- 
ly their properties. Much of our knowledge of matter, is, 
indeed, as Dr. C. remarks, relative to mind, and consists of 
the ideas we obtain of that assemblage of powers, which be- 
long to the substances themselves. Thus, our perceptions of 
heat, cold colour, taste, smell and all our notices of secon- 
dary qualities, are mere sensations in us, occasioned by pow- 
ers residing in bodies themselves. They may. occasion very 
different perceptions in other beings, who are differently con- 
stituted. We scarcely know or distinctly understand Dr. C. 
when he affirms that of the relation of matter to God, we 
5 



34 



may be said to know nothing. Undoubtedly we cannot de- 
termine what perceptions matter may convey, or occasion to 
the Divine Being, but we have sufficient reason to believe 
that he perceives its existence, and that his ideas about its 
primary qualities, as of figure, extent, motion, rest, are simi- 
lar to our own. So much for the metaphysics of our writer. 



DISSERTATION VI. 

Solemque suum, sua sidera norunt. 



Our purpose, in this dissertation, is to enter into a calm and 
dispassionate inquiry concerning the fact, whether Newton, 
Locke and Clarke did really depart from the orthodox creed 
of their Church, and entertain a preference for the Unitarian 
doctrine upon the subject of a Trinity. We shall not consi- 
der it a subject liable to disputation, whether Dr. Channing 
is authorized by any circumstances of their lives, or any de- 
clarations in their writings, to place them in the front ranks 
of Unitarian advocates. No. This is an honour which they 
certainly never coveted, and which every one of them would, 
most undoubtedly, have declined accepting. If their minds 
were perplexed with doubts, in relation to the sublime 
mystery of the Trinity, they entertained too high ideas of the 
glorious character of Christ, and conceived of Him as per- 
forming too magnificent offices, ever, to have united them- 
selves to a Society, who sink him to the diminution of a mere 
man, or human messenger, commissioned from Heaven, and 
embrace all that series of heresies which follow in the train 
of this one. What, then, is the proof that Newton felt any de- 
gree of dissatisfaction with the received articles of his creed,, 
and was disposed to prefer the Unitarian scheme in this par^ 
ticular ? The fact of his having ever done so, has been again 
and again denied by able writers in England, who have ac- 
cess to all the documents and living witnesses, that could 
throw light upon this subject ; the topick has been investiga- 
ted with all possible care and solicitude; and yet it is still as con- 
fidently repeated, and pertinaciously adhered to, as if it were 
an undisputed and universally conceded fact, The only evi- 



35 



dence upon which it rests its claims to authenticity, is the cir- 
cumstance that Newton has disputed the genuineness of a few 
passages in Holy Writ, which relate to the Trinity, together 
with a gossiping story of some persons, respectable men, it is 
said, and credible witnesses, but of the Unitarian persuasion, 
who allege that they heard this Philosopher, in conversation, 
express himself in favour of their doctrine upon this point. 
Notable evidence, indeed ! Admirable demonstration, upon 
which to condemn of heresy, this great Master of reason and 
light of science ! In refutation of this conclusive argument, 
let it barely be remarked, that if Newton thought those texts 
of scripture usually adduced in proof of this mystery of the 
faith, were interpolations or supposititious appendages to the 
primitive records, he was bound by his obligations to truth, 
and to preserve inviolate the word of God, as well as by his 
duty to the best interests of mankind, to exert himself to the 
utmost to remove them from that " form of sound words," in 
which w r ere wrapped up the best hopes both of himself and 
his race. So much for this proof of Newton's heterodoxy. 
To rebut this gossiping tale, which it is no easy task in any 
case completely to disprove, let it be recollected, that this 
great man has written upon the subject of the Christian reli- 
gion, and, by an attempt to substantiate the truth of the pro- 
phecies, has lent the sanction of his illustrious name, and the 
testimony of his almost unerring reason, to the truth of reve- 
lation. In this work, he had a fair opportunity of disclosing 
his opinion upon this subject, so fundamentally important, and 
about which, we must be allowed to think, he would not have 
left mankind in doubt, if he thought that the doctrine of his 
creed was erroneous. He was too serious a thinker to have 
let this matter pass without especial notice and solicitous at- 
tention. If he had thought that the world was imposed up- 
on, in so important an affair, he would have felt himself bound 
by solemn obligations to disabuse them, by all the weight of 
his authority. He ought, then, we maintain, to have availed 
himself of the favourable opportunity, in his treatise upon 
prophecy, and have given his written testimony against this 
fundamental article. Instead of doing this, on the contrary 
we find him lending his aid to confirm mankind in their be- 
lief upon this point, (as has been remarked by the learned and 
judicious Bishop of Pennsylvania, in a small article in Rhees's 
Encyclopedia, drawn up by him, when that work was repub- 
lished in this country) by representing divine honours as paid 
to Christ by the heavenly hosts, thereby evidencing his belief 



36 



m his Divinity. Now, is it to be credited that Newton would 
thus in publick give support and confirmation to the popular 
creed, while he was secretly, in private conversation, and 
through the medium of tea-table talk, circulating opinions 
that were unsettling the faith which mankind reposed in it? 
Is it not much more easy to suppose, that these reports in cir- 
culation about Newton's sentiments, are the misconstructions 
of his language, by those who felt an interest in giving such a 
turn to his expressions, than that he has resorted to this un- 
dignified and unmanly expedient, by which to undermine that 
cause which he openly advocated and encouraged? It seems, 
too, that, in a recent edition of the gossiping tale, a supple- 
ment has been added to the original fabrication, in which it 
is alleged, that Bishop Horsley, who had charge of Newton's 
unpublished writings, in editing the last edition of his works, 
withheld some of them from the publick eye ; and it is shrewd- 
ly conjectured, no doubt with great reason, that the cause of 
his refusal to communicate them to the publick eye, is, that 
they favoured those doctrines, which he had so strenuously 
and ably opposed. This may all be as sound reasoning, to 
some persons, and as conclusive as proofs from Holy Writ, 
but our mind is of so singular a texture, and so stubbornly 
wedded to error, that it cannot yet yield them credit. Cre- 
dat Judaeus Appella, non ego. In this way, any one who 
leaves unpublished papers, which are refused to the printer, 
may be convicted of heresy. We must have recourse to some 
other iogick than that of Aristotle, to make such arguments 
stand upon two legs. Upon the whole, there appears to be 
sufficient reason to believe that Newton was sound in the 
Christian faith, or, at least, for denying that he w r as unsound. 
We doubt not that he would have listened with resentment 
and indignation, to any insinuation that he was an abettor of 
Unitarian errors. 

The claims of the Unitarians to Mr. Locke, are even less 
founded, than those which they present to Newton. Upon 
this point, we speak with more confidence than about New T - 
ton, since %ve have carefully read his works, and studied se- 
veral of them with minute and close attention. To those who 
will take the pains thoroughly to understand this author, it is a 
subject of curiosity and amusement to remark, how frequent- 
ly his authority is given in support of doctrines of which he 
never thought, and how often his opinions are egregriously 
misunderstood, and his principles perverted. If we are to 
believe writers in their own cause* not an error has been 



37 

/ 

broached, or an absurdity hatched in any crazy brain, that 
cannot find Mr. Locke at hand to cleanse the wretched bant- 
ling from the pollutions of its birth, and lick it into comeli- 
ness and proportions. Even Helvetius can find in this great 
Metaphysician, a Father for his fooleries. Because Mr. Locke 
maintains that all our knowledge commences in the opera- 
tions of the senses, and depends upon experience, rejecting 
the doctrine of innate ideas and innate principles, Helvetius 
would have him an abettor of his insanity, which would de- 
stroy all moral distinctions whatsoever, take its atrocity from 
guilt, and its excellence from virtue ; so that, upon his prin- 
ciple of the mechanical action of objects upon the mind, and 
the mechanical operations of the mind itself, in the acquisi- 
tion of its ideas, and the formation of its habits and princi- 
ples, praise or blame are no more imputable to men for their 
good or ill conduct, than to the plant for its growth, or the 
mill for the grinding of the grain. Mr. Locke has written 
copiously upon several theological topicks, and upon some of 
those intimately connected with this doctrine; and yet, dur- 
ing the whole course of the controversies he maintained, and 
the correspondences he conducted, he has never uttered a sin- 
gle expression, which the utmost ingenuity at perversion 
could distort into an acknowledgment of any dissatisfaction 
with this article. We admit that there is something singular 
in the circumstance, that, during his protracted controversies 
upon subjects relating to this one, he never made open de- 
claration of his sentiments. But there would be something 
still more unaccountable, if he disbelieved it, in the excessive 
solicitude he discovered, in his correspondence with Bishop 
Stillingfleet and others, to convince them that no opinions 
which he had ever advanced, were unfavourable to this doc- 
trine. If he utterly discredited it, as is alleged, why take so 
much pains, and devote so much intellectual toil to convince 
the Prelate, and the rest of the orthodox, that he had never 
advanced any thing which could fairly be turned "against it ? 
It would seem impossible to explain this mystery, and to clear 
his character from the suspicion of egregrious disingenuous- 
ness and equivocation. We must believe, that, whatever dif- 
ficulties might, at times, embarrass his understanding in re- 
reftecting upon the topick, he did not seriously reject it. And 
in looking over his w T orks, we discovered one passage, which, 
in the want of positive evidence upon the other side, we think 
ought decidedly to turn the scale in favour of his soundness 
in the faith, It is found in a letter which he wrote in Latin, 



38 



to the celebrated Limborch, and we are not aware that it was 
ever before noticed by any writer upon this subject. He had, 
in a previous epistle mentioned to Limborch, that Dr. Allix 
had lately published a work in England, in which he under- 
stood, for he had not yet obtained or read it, the Dr. had un- 
d< i taken to demonstrate, that the doctrine of the Trinity 
might be traced among the Jews and Rabbins. In this se- 
cond letter, he again recurs to the subject, showing that it 
occupied some share of his attention, and makes use of the 
following remarkable expressions. Quid de eo audias interim 
mihi dicas. Quidam apud nos, valde paradoxam credunt, doc- 
trinam Trinitatis Judaeistribuere, et stabilimentum istiusdog- 
matis e Synagoga petere. Alii e contra dictitant, hoc jugulum 
causae esse; et hoc fundamento stabiliri orthodoxiam, et ever- 
ti omnia Unitariorum argumenta. Quid ipsa res doceat, aveo 
videre, opem enim in hac causa a Judseis et Rabbinis olim 
non expectavi ; Sed lux semper gratissima, undecunque afful- 
geat. " In the meantime, you will give me information of 
what you shall hear said of it. There are some among us, 
who think it egregiously paradoxical, to attribute to the Jews 
the doctrine of a Trinity, and to expect from the Synagogue 
a confirmation of that dogma. Others, on the contrary, de- 
clare that here lies the very hinge upon which the controver- 
sy turns, and that upon this foundation the orthodox doctrine 
may be firmly established, and the arguments of the Unita- 
rians overturned. I wish to see what the thing speaks for 
itself, for I have not hitherto been in the habit of expecting 
any aid in this cause from the Jews and Rabbins ; but light 
is very delightful, from whatever source it may shine." Now, 
we are willing to leave it to the judgment of every intelligent 
reader to decide, whether any one who was not a decided 
Trinitarian in his heart, would ever have expressed himself 
in this style. He evidently considers himself enlisted upon 
the side of orthodoxy, and as an opponent of Unitarians. 
He delivers himself precisely as any one would do, who had 
an interest in supporting the doctrine of the Trinity, who 
had not, indeed, anticipated any aid in sustaining it from the 
Jews and Rabbins, but who would be agreeably disappoint- 
ed, if it should be obtained from that quarter. I have not 
hitherto " expected" are words worthy of observation. We 
are not in the habit of expecting what we do not wish, if we 
can avoid it. And if he had been an opponent of the tenet, 
would he not rather have said, I have not hitherto apprehend- 
ed that Trinitarians would attempt to sustain their cause, by 



39 



arguments derived from that quarter ? " I have not expected 
aid." Would he have denominated such proof aid, if he had 
not at heart, the successful issue of the cause ? The heart is 
the best interpreter, oftentimes, of its own sentiments ; and 
we cannot help thinking, that, in this passage, we detect the 
latent feelings and tendencies of Mr. Locke. The last sen- 
tence, too, is in perfect accordance with the whole strain of 
the passage. " Light is very delightful" or acceptable, from 
whatever quarter it may beam. Would he have honoured 
that speculation with the appellation of light, which was to 
confirm error, or establish absurdity ? With these illustrations 
of this passage, from Locke's letter, we leave this subject in 
the hands of every intelligent and reflecting mind, with this 
single question addressed to Unitarians ; would any one of 
them have used this or similar language, under the same cir- 
cumstances 1 Let them answer it to their own feelings, and 
we think that they cannot but perceive, that, whatever diffi- 
culties might, at intervals, have perplexed the mind of Mr, 
Locke, yet, in his habitual convictions, he was in favour of a 
Trinity. Perhaps his mind, during life, may have been in 
the habit of passing through a train of feelings similar to 
those of Judge Paterson, one of the Justices of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. This excellent man, and enlight- 
ened Jurist, when, during his last illness, he perceived his end 
approaching, sent for the author of these dissertations, and 
informed him, that, although a member of the Presbyterian 
Church, it was his desire before he left the world, to receive 
the communion. He stated, upon that occasion, that he had 
been withheld during life, from the performance of this part 
of his duty, and yielding obedience to the injunction of our 
Saviour, by doubts which he entertained concerning the di- 
vinity of our Lord ; but that, for some time past, he had been 
engaged in a more close and thorough examination of that 
subject, and that this inquiry had terminated in the removal 
of those doubts, and the satisfaction of his mind as to the 
claims of Christ. He concluded, as he began, by expressing a 
desire to yield this testimony of his faith, as he could now do 
so with a good conscience, in receiving the communion, which 
was accordingly administered to him ; and he appeared to re- 
ceive from those pledges of a Saviour's love, strength and 
confidence to sustain the severe conflict with his last enemy, 
over whom he triumphed. 

We shall conclude this dissertation, by vindicating Dr. 
Samuel Clarke from the same charge. This pure, intense 



40 



and resplendent light of the Church, too, has been supposed 
to have dimmed with the same spot, the splendour of his orb. 
If the accusation were well founded, it would be but a sin- 
gle spot in the disk of the grand luminary of the Solar Sys- 
tem. But, fortunately for the best interests of truth and 
mankind, it never has been, and never can be proved true. 
It is strange beyond measure, that, although this illustrious 
man has been accused, summoned before a convocation of the 
Bishops and Clergy and acquitted by all the Bishops ; after he 
has repeatedly denied the truth of the charge, professed his be- 
lief in the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ, this accusation 
should be repeated, trumpeted abroad, and perseveringly pro- 
claimed. The whole sum of the matter is, that Dr. Clarke 
did not entertain precisely the same modes of thinking, and 
express himself in precisely the same language upon this 
topick, as Dr. Waterland and his opponents; and, therefore, 
he was to be worried and tormented with the cry of heresy, 
and, if possible, driven out of the pale of the Church. Di- 
vines have, in all ages, been much too keen-scented in detect- 
ing a latent heresy in each other's doctrines. As far as this dis- 
position of the clergy goes towards preserving the pure word of 
God from all corrupting mixtures, it is to be commended, when 
they allow their zeal for divine truth to be enlightened by 
knowledge, and regulated by discretion. But, we must con- 
fess, that we feel humiliated and mortified, when we read of 
the manner in which the controversy with Dr. Clarke, was. 
conducted by Dr. Waterland and his coadjutors. We highly 
approve of the zeal and ability with which Dr. Waterland 
was inclined to contend for the pure faith of Christ, and we 
believe, moreover, that his opinions are generally sound; but 
that because Dr. Clarke should not have taken precisely the 
same views of that subject with himself, and even allow not 
always the just and orthodox views, he should have felt him- 
self at liberty to attack him with such coarse, rough and of- 
fensive invective, and with such an out-pouring of indignation 
and wrath, seems to us unaccountable. If Clarke was wrong, 
let him have been set right in the spirit of Christian meek- 
ness and brotherly-kindness, and it is not to be doubted but 
a man of his intelligence and wonderful force and clearness 
of understanding, would readily have stood corrected, and 
have abandoned a dangerous innovation. That Clarke was 
not a heretick or Unitarian, but adhered to the doctrine of a 
Trinity, and believed in the divinity, are certain truths. We 
shall exhibit our proofs in few words, for it requires but slight 



41 



efforts to reach our conclusions. Let the reader attend to the 
following considerations, and, if they do not settle this contro- 
versy, we shall be more mistaken than we ever were upon 
any occasion during the whole course of life. Bishop Van 
Mildert, in his biography of Dr. Waterland, for whose cha- 
racter he discovers a strong partiality, says : " Indeed, he 
(Dr. Clarke) disclaimed the character of an antitrinitarian ; 
and appears to have been firmly persuaded, that the doctrine 
of the Trinity was a true scripture doctrine. His labours 
were directed entirely to the proof of this doctrine, in the 
sense in which he himself embraced it, and which he labour- 
ed to prove was the sense both of scripture and of the Church 
of England." Dr. Jackson, who defended Dr. Clarke's book 
against the objections of Dr. Waterland, censures Dr. Wa- 
terland for entitling his work in answer to them, a Vindica- 
tion of Christ's Divinity, as implying that those who opposed 
him denied the Divinity, whereas, says he, the question is 
not, indeed, at all concerning the Divinity of Christ, but con- 
cerning the particular manner of the explication of that doc- 
trine, and whether the true notion of the Divinity of God ? 
the Father Almighty, does not imply that He alone is su- 
preme in authority and dominion over all." But we need 
only appeal to the book of Dr. Clarke itself, from which they 
profess to derive their proofs of his heretical tendencies, to 
demonstrate his innocence. In his " Catholick doctrine of the 
Trinity," proposition 16th, he has these words, " They, there- 
fore, have also justly been censured, who taking upon them 
to be wise above what is written, and intruding into things 
which they have not seen, have presumed to affirm, that there 
was a time when the Son was not." Here we see he de- 
nies at once the accusation brought against him, of being an 
i^rian. All that Arius was ever brought fairly to acknow- 
ledge in reference to his heresy, was, that there was a time 
when the Son of God was not. By this confession, of course, 
he dethroned him from the place of Deity, but still left him 
the greatest and most exalted of created things. Again, in 
the same work, Dr. Clarke says — " The Person of the Son is, 
in the New Testament, sometimes styled God. By the ope- 
ration of the Son, the Father made and governs the world. 
To the Son are ascribed, in scripture, other the greatest 
things, and the highest titles; even all communicable, divine 
powers." Now, if these representations of the Son do not 
show that the author believed in the Divinity of Christ, and 
if all we have adduced does not prove that he believed the 
6 



42 



doctrine of the Trinity, we must at all events acknowledge, 
that it is an orthodoxy which entirely satisfies our minds. 
We think there are some untenable propositions in Dr Clarke's 
treatise, but are we on this account to brand him as a here- 
tick, and consign himself and his works to the flames? He 
certainly acted very unavisedly too, when, in order to con- 
form the Church services to his own peculiar views, he un- 
dertook to alter the doxology; and in this matter he was very 
justly censured and reproved by his Bishop, while the error 
into which he had fallen was rectified. To finish our obser- 
vations about Dr. Clarke, we will state an anecdote, taken 
from the Life of Dr. W aterland by Bishop Van Vlildert, and 
which is there introduced to show the deviations of Clarke 
from the straight path, while to those who understand meta- 
physicks, it will be perceived to have an opposite effect. " By 
desire of Queen Caroline, consort of George the First, a con- 
ference took place between Dr. Clarke and Dr. Hawarden, a 
celebrated clergyman of the Roman Catholick Church, in the 
presence of her majesty, Mrs. Middleton and Dr. Corayer. 
When they met, Dr. Clarke, at some length, in very guarded 
terms, and with great apparent perspicuity, exposed his sys- 
tem. After he had finished, a pause of some length ensued. 
Dr. Hawarden then said, that he had listened with the great- 
est attention to what had been said by Dr. Clarke ; that he 
believed he apprehended rightly the whole of his system, and 
that the only reply which he should make to it was, asking a 
single question. That if the question should be thought to 
contain any ambiguity, he wished it to be cleared of its am- 
biguity, before any answer to it was given; but desired that 
when the answer to it should be given, it should be express- 
ed either by the affirmative or negative monosyllable. To 
this proposition, Dr. Clarke assented. Then said Dr. Hawar- 
den, I ask can God the Father annihilate the Son and the 
Holy Ghost? Answer me, yes, or no. Dr. Clarke continued 
some time in deep thought, and then said, it was a question 
which he had never considered. A searching question, adds 
Mr. Butler, it certainly was; and the reader will readily per= 
ceive its bearings. If Dr. Clarke answered yes, he admitted 
the Son and the Holy Ghost to be mere creatures ; if he an- 
swered no, he admitted them to be absolute Gods." From 
this anecdote alone, one thing is apparent, in regard to Dr. 
Clarke's opinion upon this topick, that is, that he was nei- 
ther a Unitarian, nor an Arian; for, in either case, he 
should promptly, and without hesitation, have answered yes. 



43 



Why should he not, then, have answered no? Here lay the 
difficulty in his system, since, as he gave supremacy to the 
Father and also the derivation of the Son, he had to decide 
whether that power of giving rise to the Son, implied also 
the power of annihilation. If he had had time to reflect 
coolly upon the subject, no doubt he would have ultimately 
answered no; or, that it was impossible for the human mind 
to decide about a thing that was so evidently above reason, 
At all events, this anecdote shows that Dr. Clarke believed 
Christ to be a Divine Being, although not self-exist and in- 
dependent. 



DISSERTATION VIL 



Non ego. paucis, 
Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudrt 
Aut humana parum cavit natura. — Horace. 



Having, in our last disquisition, vindicated Newton, Locke, 
and Clarke, from the imputation of heresy, which has been 
alleged against them, and shown, we humbly trust, to the 
entire satisfaction of the reader, that they were sound in the 
faith, we shall now continue our observations in regard to the 
review of the life and writings of John Milton. And here Dr. 
C. will allow us, as one of the self-constituted guardians of 
the publick taste, as well as one of tne appointed superintend- 
ants of the morals and religion of our Country, which all we 
Republicans are by natural right, to take some slight excep- 
tions to a few of his canons of rhetorick, and enter our solemn 
caveat against their admission into the statute-book of ele- 
gant literature. The discussion of a light subject of this na- 
ture, may serve to scatter a few flowers along the rugged 
paths of theological inquiry, which, although they are, often- 
times, embellished with valuable gems, and lead through 
regions abounding in inestimable treasures, are not apt to re- 
gale the eye, and entertain the imagination, with the lighter 
beauties and more gay productions of art or nature. Dr, C 
when in opposition to the general strain of sentiment among 



44 



criticks, he is commending and even highly extolling the qua- 
lities of Milton's prose style, hazards the following observa- 
tions. " A great mind cannot without injurious constraint, 
shrink itself to the grasp of common passive readers. Its 
natural movement is free, bold and majestick, and it ought 
not to be required to part with these attributes, that the mul- 
titude may keep pace with it. A full mind naturally over- 
flows in long sentences, and, in the moment of inspiration, 
when thick-coming thoughts and images crowd upon it, will 
often pour them forth in splendid confusion, dazzling to com- 
mon readers, but kindling to congenial spirits. We must not 
expect in the ocean, the transparency of the calm inland 
stream." We need extend our quotation no farther, to con- 
vey an adequate idea of the intent with w hich we have re- 
ferred to this topick. We deem the sentiments here express- 
ed, incorrect in principle, and calculated to mislead the judg- 
ments of those who are not well-grounded in the rules of fine 
writing, and whose taste is imperfectly modelled. These 
maxims of composition, are directly at variance w ith those 
which have been delivered to us by Cicero, Quintilian, Blair, 
and, in fact, the w r hole succession of criticks, who have trans- 
mitted to us maxims and directions relating to subjects of 
taste and letters. These authors, with one consent, agree, 
that clearness and simplicity are fundamental qualities of a 
good style, without which all other excellences would be in- 
effectual to the successful and agreeable communication of 
thought. V\ ithout perspicuity, all ideas and images, how ever 
brilliant and striking, would be at best but gems glittering 
amidst darkness, and never serve the purpose of illuminating 
our path ; and, without simplicity, that enchanting property 
of fine writing, an author may instruct, and sometimes enter- 
tain us with the profoundness of his reflections, the justness 
and accuracy of his views of things, and the keenness and 
pungency of his wit; but he will still want that irresistible 
charm, that captivating attraction which gives him possession 
of the heart, enchains the attention, and transports the mind. 
We agree with Dr. C, indeed, thus far; that clearness or per- 
spicuity, without other and higher properties, would be but 
an inferior recommendation ; since, as he says, there may be 
" writings which are clear through their shallowness ;" but 
we cannot agree with him, that clearness and simplicity are 
not essential qualities, although the first is negative, and the 
last an ornament that sets off to advantage other greater qua- 
lifications for fine waiting, rather than constitutes itself an in* 



45 



dispensable mean to the transmission of our ideas. Quinti- 
lian, as is well known, lays great stress upon perspicuity, ob- 
serving, that a good writer should not only enable the reader 
to understand him, but render it impossible to misunderstand 
him. This perspicuity, he says, should be like the light of the 
sun, revealing objects to the most careless observer. These 
are acknowledged maxims in the art of rhetorick, and should 
no longer be brought in question, having their foundation 
deeply laid in the nature of things, and the constitution of 
human nature. Surely the world, after having been so many 
years occupied in attaining just conceptions and rules in those 
matters, does not intend to retrace its footsteps, and travel 
back in the path that leads to its former ignorance and error. 
But we could scarcely think Dr. C. serious, when we perused 
these words, in ihe passage which we have just quoted. " A 
full mind, in the moment of inspiration, when thick-coming 
thoughts and images crowd upon it, will often pour them 
forth in splendid confusion, dazzling to common readers, but 
kindling to congenial spirits." We trust the Reverend Dr. 
will excuse the license of our thoughts upon the occasion, and 
will not think that we meant the smallest disparagement to 
his talents or taste; but, for our lives, upon the perusal of 
these lines, we could not help thinking of Martinus Scrible- 
rus, and the profound lessons which are inculcated in that 
immortal performance, called the science of the profound, or 
the art of sinking in poetry. In that wild and grotesque, but, 
at the same time, just and admirable work, the maxims deli- 
vered are so similar to this, that we could not fall to recognise 
the resemblance. " Pouring forth thoughts, in splendid, con- 
fusion, dazzling to common readers, but kindling to Conge- 
nial spirits," are so like the following passages, that one would 
almost be tempted to refuse the author the merit of origina- 
lity, if we did not know that he was infinitely superior to any 
attempt at plagiarism. " A genuine writer of the p >und/' 
says that nice observer and acute critick, "'will take care never 
to magnify any object, without clouding it at the same time. 
His thoughts will appear in a true mist, and very unlike what 
is in nature. It must always be remembered, that darkness 
is an essential quality of the profound; or, if there chance to 
be a glimmering, it must be, as Milton expresses it, no light, 
but rather darkness visible." In a similar strain of irony 1 , 
this writer inculcates the soundest lessons of Finished compo- 
sition. The fact is, that no confusion, splendid or low, no 
dazzling images are ever necessary, but worse than useless 



46 



in composition. The richest thoughts and sublimest images 
that ever crowd into the human mind, may be expressed in 
the simplest, most chastened, and familiar language. Our 
conceptions and images, instead of being poured out in splen- 
did confusion, should beam forth like the full stream of the 
meridian Sun. Sublimity is said to be allied to darkness and 
confusion, but these are qualities of objects that awaken emo- 
tions of grandeur, not properties of thought or style. The 
eloquent writer, whose work we are now considering, will 
excuse us for these remarks, which are in some degree foreign 
from the immediate intent of these essays. But there is a 
greater bond of connection between disquisitions upon reli- 
gion, and those upon fine writing, than would at first sight 
be apparent. Shallow views in science and letters, are apt 
to accompany a meagre and shallow Divinity, while those 
who use a long line in fathoming the great deeps of philoso- 
phy, find that, with it, they can also readily penetrate the 
remote and hidden waters in the fountains of divine truth. 
Many persons, and, among the rest Dr. C. seem to think, that 
the present age is greatly in advance of past time, in science, 
literature, taste, and style of writing. The Reverend Doctor 
seems to sneer even at the idea, that the age of Anne, a cen- 
tury or more past, was the Augustan age of England. There 
we must be allowed to differ from him toto coelo. We by no 
means undervalue those illustrious men who have adorned 
their country, and enriched her literary treasury with inva- 
luable productions of their genius, since that asra ; but the 
highest praise we can bestow upon them, is to say, that they 
resemble the models of that period upon which they formed 
their taste. Great men and excellent writers have appeared 
in England and America, in every generation since, who ri- 
valled the glory of their predecessors, but, in the time of 
Anne, they shone in a splendid galaxy. Nature seemed to 
have put forth, then, her utmost force, in the production of 
all kinds of greatness. Who that has a thirst for knowledge, 
an admiration of greatness, or a taste for letters, does not envy 
the men who lived in the times of Newton, Locke, Clarke, 
Addison, Swift, Pope, Bolingbroke, Shaftsbury, and btilling- 
fleet ? Under the influence of such lights in the hemisphere, 
Earth must have glowed with higher enjoyments, and the 
Heavens have shed upon it its selecter influences. Never was 
there such an aera before, in the history of mankind, and God 
grant that our country may be the seat selected by himself, 
to which, in process of time, like days may be restored. 



47 

Much talk, too, we hear, of the improvements recently made 
in the style of writing, and that Addison, Pope, Swift and 
Locke, are tame and spiritless, when compared with those 
splendid sentences, that exquisite imagery, varied and har- 
monious cadence, and the full and flowing periods that now 
characterize the productions of those who wield the pen. We 
grant, that, to mere diction and great embellishment, more 
attention is now paid by authors, than was paid a century 
ago, but has this been a real improvement ? Have we not, in 
too great degree, sacrificed sense to sound, just and profound 
views of things, to mere harmony of diction and brilliance 
of imagery ? Has not simplicity been lost amidst the perpet- 
ual effort to shine with rounded periods and artificial beau- 
ties ? Have not the simple graces of style, given place to ex- 
cessive decoration, meretricious ornaments ? Are not the 
symptoms of a publick taste verging towards decline, percep- 
tible, in the excessive fondness for ponderous terms, sparkling 
antitheses, florid images and illustrations, quaint and far- 
fetched titles, and poetick and prose tales vastly exciting 
but barren of instruction ? In our country, let us endeavour 
to cultivate a taste suited to the stern integrity, and simple 
and frugal habits of a Republican Government. A fondness 
for excessive embellishment, is certainly our present literary 
sin. We cannot open our mouths upon the most ordinary 
occasions, but out fly tropes and figures, like bees from their 
hives ; and, in our eulogies of the dead, and fourth of July 
orations, we rob the rainbow and all the morning and even- 
ing clouds, as well as flowers of the field, of all their richest 
tints. It is a proof of our native genius, but it shows that 
our talents are not sufficiently cultivated. Let us correct 
this redundance, by the only possible mode, a familiar ac- 
quaintance with the finest models of writing, and a more 
careful and longer continued education of our youth. But, 
we have insensibly v,andered from our subject ; if we could 
hope that this digres ion has not been indulged without some 
profit to the reader, we should not regret the excursion we 
have taken together* 



■43 



DISSERTATION VIII. 



As if Divinity had catched 

The itch, on purpose to be scratched, 

Or, like a Mountebank, did wound, 

And stab herself with doubts profound. — Hudibras. 



We now purpose to exhibit Dr. C's views of the ecclesias- 
tical systems that have prevailed in the world, since the great 
sera of the, reformation. In his criticism upon Milton's works, 
he reiterates those railing accusations against subsisting esta- 
1 i hments, which constitute so considerable a proportion of 
his declamations. " The chief cause of Milton's failure, (says 
he.) was, that he sought truth (he means evangelical truth) 
too exclusively in the past. He believed in the perfection of 
the primitive Church, and that Christianity, instead of being 
carried forward, was to be carried back to its original puri- 
ty," This is a favourite topick with the Dr., and, so intent 
is he, in decrying primitive purity, both in principle and 
practice, as, indeed, it stood him in hand to do, as it is direct- 
ly opposed to all his notions of things, that he frequently re- 
turns to the charge, during the pro essays. " Not 
only Mil ion's error on polygamy, i 5S,) but many 
other noxious mistakes have resultei uring Christi- 
anity by the condition of the prir ch, as if that 
were the standard of faith and prac very thing al- 
lowed then were wise and good, as I on then were 
unfolded in all its power and extent. s, that Chris- 
tianity was then in its infancy. The communicat- 
ed its great truths to the rude minds id Heathens; 
but the primitive Church did not, c< derstand, all 
that was involved in those principle: >plications of 
which they are susceptible, and all t ?s they were 
to exert on the human mind." We ha> . such length 
the sentiments of this author, in ord< reader may 
perceive them in their full extent, an stravagance 
and licentiousness. After this view, be disposed 
to accuse us of exaggeration, or mi tion in our 
statements. We sometimes hear it as Unitarian- 
ism is the half-way house to downri y, and this 
author considers that charge unjust il. But, in 



49 



regard to the point now before us for discussion, the Dr. has 
not stopped in his retreat from Christianity, at the half-way 
house, but absolutely passed over the whole interval of space 
between the two parties, and entered the quarters, and joined 
the ranks of the enemy. Nay, he has even outstripped many 
infidels in his sentiments, in regard to the truth and order of 
the primitive Church. Some of that mischievous fraternity, 
with a degree of method in their madness, have represented 
the doctrines of the Bible, as nothing more than a republica- 
tion of the laws of nature upon those topicks of which it 
treats. Others allege, that our religion, as promulged by 
Christ and his Apostles, was a pure and excellent system of 
morals and Divinity, but that it has been greatly corrupted 
and disfigured by modern Theologues and Statesmen, who, in 
this way, have exposed it to the just invectives and severe 
denunciations of those who have at heart the interests of 
truth, and the welfare of mankind. Hear one of the most 
learned and eloquent, although not most profound among the 
enemies of our religion, upon this very topick. If the severe 
rebuke of Christ and his Apostles, and the awful anathema 
pronounced, under images that thrill the heart, at the end of 
the Apocalyptick vision, have no impression upon the Dr., 
who yet names himself with the sacred appellation of Chris- 
tian, let the admonition come home to him from the mouth of 
an author, who will not be supposed to be biassed by vulgar 
prejudices, or misled by his veneration for superannuated 
maxims. Lord Bolingbroke, in his elegant and interesting, 
but, as his greatest admirers will admit, neither just nor pro- 
found dissertations, upon what he beautifully denominates the 
philosophia prima, or first philosophy, expresses the following 
sentiments, in reference to those who imagine that the scrip- 
tures were intended to be improved by the lights or dicove- 
ries of human reason. In that treatise he says, " In a word, 
can he be less than mad, who boasts a revelation superadded 
to reason, to supply its defects, and who superadds reason to 
revelation, to supply the defects of this, at the same time V 9 
Where has Dr. C. now landed, and to what region is he trans- 
ported? He surpasses Bolingbroke, in his aims at change and 
reformation in the sacred code. Bolingbroke contents him- 
self with railing at existing establishments, the corruptions 
and abuses of primitive institutions, the monstrous and abo- 
minable errors grafted upon the sound and prolifick stock of 
early faith, while he would carefully preserve, or profess a 
desire to preserve those sacred institutions themselves mvio- 
7 



50 



late, and, in their entire integrity, that sound and produc- 
tive stock in vigorous life and ever-blooming beauty and per- 
fection, as should, if possible, be done; but Dr. with a 
restless spirit, and impious hand of innovation, would advance 
from step to step, and strength to strength, in the unholy 
work of changing God's ordinances, turning and overturning 
the fabricks which his sacred hand has formed, until all pri- 
mitive institutions, as well as modern establishments, yielding 
to his touch, like that of death and destruction, should lie 
mingled in one common ruin. We know, indeed, from his 
other productions, at what Bolingbroke was aiming, that he 
deserves no credit for this apparent moderation, and that 
these specious declarations arose out of a momentary fit of 
feigned reverence for primitive truth and order, while deep 
malignity and exterminating rage rankled in his heart against 
the whole divine system of revelation. His insinuations were 
directed against Clarke and Cudworth, Stillingfleet, Butler 
and Warburton, whose splendid orbs threw his into eclipse. 
These luminous minds, were, not, indeed, as he pretends, 
superadding the efforts of reason to supply defects of revela- 
tion, but occupied in the great and legitimate work of elicit- 
ing, confirming, and recommending primitive truth to those, 
who, all-sufficient as it was in itself, undervalued and de- 
spised it, in drawing water for the sanctuary from the wells 
of human learning, in rendering the discoveries of modern 
science tributary to revelation, and the works of the great 
Creator, as unfolded by the researches of successful inquirers 
into the mysteries of nature, confirmatory of the truth of his 
holy word, in triumphantly defending religion against the as- 
saults of its enemies; and, in a word, if not superadding the 
efforts of reason, to supply defects of revelation, (for they well 
knew there were none to be supplied) in co-operating with its 
Author, in rendering that revelation effectual to the accom- 
plishment of those beneficial purposes which it was original- 
ly intended to serve. The aim of Bolingbroke was defeated, 
as far as it went to the injury of these great Masters of rea- 
son, for his censure wanted justness of application, and a foun- 
dation in truth; andthe arrowwhich he cast at them, fell harm- 
lessly at their feet. But, the observation of his Lordship speaks 
a language of pungent rebuke, and deep-toned admonition to 
Dr. C. : since the very quintessence of his scheme, evidently 
consists in the improvements which Christianity is to receive 
from the increasing lights of reason, and the advancement of 
society in know ledge and refinement. Would that we could 



51 



Convince him of this radical and fatal error of his theory, 
that seems so long to have held possession of his mind, that 
he has made of it an idol, and which, like most other idols, 
first renders reason subservient to its dominion, and then ex- 
tinguishes its lights. 

But, let us endeavour to bring this assumption of Dr. C, 
into the fair field of argument, that we may discover, if pos- 
sible, how far it will stand the test of examination, or sus- 
tain the shock of warfare. " The primitive Church cannot 
be justly regarded as the model upon which, in all sub- 
sequent ages, we should form our systems of doctrine and 
discipline, because it was then in its infancy, the Apostles ad- 
dressed themselves to the rude minds of Jews and Heathens, 
and cannot be supposed to have communicated to them a 
scheme, w r hich, although suited to their condition, w r ould have 
served equally well for ages of greater light, civilization, and 
refinement." Christianity then, according to this author, is 
to be remodelled in each successive generation, to suit it to 
the manners, habits, prejudices, the ignorance or knowledge 
of mankind. The pure milk of the divine word, will serve 
for the nutriment of a people, during the innocence and sim- 
plicity of their manners, but, when they become opulent, cor- 
rupt and licentious, its pungent truths must be relinquished, 
and a more accommodating doctrine promulged, lest they 
should be rendered uneasy in their vices. This is the ulti- 
mate point of absurdity, and to become completely insane in 
the career of innovation and reform. It is not easy to con- 
ceive that any one who maintains, such opinions, does not. 
feel Christianity lie in his way towards the attainment of his 
supreme object, and does not look ultimately to its subver- 
sion. If we really believe that it has been communicated to 
us from Heaven, could we expect to improve it to advantage, 
or that the production of infinite wisdom is to be perfected 
by the human mind ? As well might w T e expect that we could 
improve the structure of the solar system, or make a better 
arrangement of the elements that compose the Earth. In 
order to show the utter absurdity of such a scheme, let us 
bring it to particulars, which is frequently the most effectual 
method of exposing the futility and fallacy of a general as- 
sertion. What part of Christianity is it, that the Dr. sup- 
poses capable of these renewed modifications, to suit the va- 
rying conditions of society ? Christianity reveals to us the 
existence of God, and brings us acquainted w r ith his attri= 
butes. Would he ever give up this doctrine of a Supreme 



52 



Being, in any state of Society, or have him displayed under 
diverse characters, to suit the endless fluctuations of opinion? 
Christianity informs us, that God exists in a Trinity of Per- 
sons, in one simple and indivisible essence. We presume the 
Dr. thinks the time already arrived, in which mankind are too 
wise to believe this mystery. Christianity informs us, that 
Christ offered an atonement for the sins of all mankind, that 
the Holy Spirit was diffused to purify and renew their corrupt 
nature, and prepare them for the enjoyments of Heaven. If 
these were important truths in the early ages of the Church, 
can they be less estimable at the present day, and less essen- 
tial to our salvation ? Christianity informs us, that we are all 
fallen and depraved creatures, and that, unless by penitence, 
faith in Christ, and obedience to his law, we make our peace 
with God, we shall be wretched in this life, and everlasting- 
ly miserable in the life to come. Has man, by any process, 
been cleansed from a guilty nature, since the infancy of the 
Church, or have the flames of torment, by any divine decree, 
been moderated or extinguished ? We are utterly at a loss to 
understand the intent of this writer, when he talks of the dis- 
pensation of Christianity being imperfect and incomplete in 
the times of Christ and his Apostles, that then it was suited 
to the rude minds of Jews and Heathens, but is to be altered 
and amended, in more refined and enlightened ages. We have 
always thought that one of its greatest excellences and recom- 
mendations is, that it is adapted to all the circumstances and 
vicissitudes of nations, giving all their learning to Nations, in 
ages of darkness, pouring the lights of revelation upon the 
most advanced in science, and operating as a leaven, in all 
cases, to check their pernicious excesses, correct their vices, 
purify and refine their morals, and promote the rise and growth 
of all those virtues and graces that render human life desira- 
ble and happy, and fitting mankind for a higher and more 
exalted felicity in a future world. 

But, why should we devote ourselves to the refutation of 
an author, whose opinions contradict each other, and who 
abandons ground at one moment, which he had assumed at 
another ? We have seen that Dr. C, in his review of Mil- 
ton's works, objects to the appeal which he makes to the pri- 
mitive Church, as the test of purity in doctrine, and expedi- 
ency in practice, alleging, that, as the Church was then in 
its infancy, our Saviour and his Apostles could never have in- 
tended it as an infallible guide in doctrine, or unvarying mo- 
del in government, or external rites and ceremonies. Hear 



5o 



the same writer, in his sermons delivered at the ordination of 
Clergymen, and consecration of Churches. "Whatsoever 
doctrines, says he, seem to us to be clearly taught in scrip- 
ture, we receive without reserve or exception." And, again. 
« Jesus Christ is the only Master of Christians, and, whatever 
he taught, either during his personal Ministry, or by his in- 
spired Apostles, we regard as of divine authority, and pro- 
fess to make the rule of our lives." Is not this singular? Can 
this be the author who before reproved Milton for professing 
so much reverence for the primitive Church, and declares that 
it was not possible, at that period, to have prescribed a mo- 
del upon which the Church, in all ages, was to be formed, as 
its order ought to be so modified, as to suit the diversified 
states of society, and the manners and habits of a people? 
Is there not a glaring inconsistency here? We should press 
this charge upon the Dr., since no crime in logick can be 
more capital, than a plain contradiction, at one time, of what 
we had asserted at another, but that he has evaded the force 
of the accusation by confession in open Court, since, in his 
introductory observations, he informs us of those discrepan- 
ces which may be perceived in what he had stated at differ- 
ent periods. This confession, however, while it presents a 
satisfactory plea in his vindication from all crimes committed 
against the rules of logick, and has peculiar force, in his case, 
inasmuch as his avowed doctrine is, that no principles in re- 
ligious affairs, ought ever to be stationary, but progressive; 
and, of course, by a continual change of his opinions, upon 
arriving at further lights, he is only acting according to the 
very spirit of his system; yet, it is certainly calculated to 
diminish the weight of his authority as an instructor in right- 
eousness, and authorized interpreter of the revealed will of 
God. Can we safely put our understanding, or our conscience 
in the hands of a man, whose mind is performing perpetual 
oscillations in his opinions, who abandons to-day what he re- 
ceived without hesitation yesterday, and who, should we join 
him to-day, may to morrow abandon us to our follies? Is not 
the salvation of our souls an affair of too much consequence 
to be entrusted in such hands? Is it of no sort of importance, 
what opinions we espouse ? Have Christ and his Apostles, 
and, indeed, moralists and sages of all times, been hitherto 
deceiving us, when they represent it as of such incalculable 
moment, that we should entertain just sentiments, or contract 
wholesome principles of action? Dr. C. at one time tells us, 
that he receives the doctrines of Christ and his Apostles, as 



54 



undeniable verities ; at the next, asserts that they could not 
have intended to propound doctrines, which were to be ad- 
mitted and received in all ages. Now, is it of no importance 
which of these opinions we embrace, or whether we regard 
Christ and his Apostles, as conveying to us the words of sal- 
vation, or as merely speaking to a rude and barbarous peo- 
ple, and delivering instructions in which we have no con- 
cern? Bye the bye, we have yet to learn, that Christ and his 
Apostles did address their doctrines to rude and barbarous 
Jews and Heathens; for that people, who had access to the 
sublime productions then extant in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, 
and who lived in the eve of the Augustan age of Rome, could 
scarcely be regarded as entitled to these appellations. The 
Dr., however, here merely adopts the language of infidels and 
sce|)ticks, and must be regarded as excusable, when he can 
adduce in his favour the authority of such near relations. We 
shall soon prove, to the satisfaction of the reader, that this is 
not a solitary instance, in which he speaks like unbelievers 
and scepticks. 

Upon the whole, it may be remarked, there can scarcely 
be any doubt, that, in regard to matters of indifference, for ex- 
ample, in the circumstances of publick worship, in minute par- 
ticulars of church government, of rites and ceremonies, Christ 
intended that his Church should be left free, and capable of 
adapting herself to the various conditions in which she should 
be placed ; but, to suppose that the same license was to be 
extended to her leading doctrines, and fundamental principles 
of government, is to maintain, that he has left it in the power 
of succeeding ages, to dissolve their obligations of obedience 
to his laws, to defeat the great purposes of his mission to 
Earth, and utterly to destroy his religion. Let any one ask 
himself the question, after a careful perusal of the Gospel, 
whether those who have conveyed it to us, leave the impres- 
sion upon his mind, that that dispensation was only introduc- 
tory to another, or be in itself complete, and exclusive of all 
others ? Do not the writers who have penned the works con- 
tained in the New Testament, expressly assert, that it is the 
final revelation of God's will to mankind, and that the vo- 
lume was then sealed, uttering tremendous anathemas against 
those who shall add to, or detract any thing from what is there 
contained? It is unnecessary, however, to dilate longer upon 
this absurd idea, as the intent of the Dr. is very perceptible, 
and his drift sufficiently evident. Should he speak out his 
sentiments, he would say that the old hypothesis of evangeli* 



55 



cal philosophy, which recognized the native guilt of man, the 
necessity of an atonement for sin, of the influences of the 
Holy Spirit to cleanse our minds and sanctify our nature, and 
the exploded doctrines of such an evil being as a Devil, and 
such a frightful abode as hell, ought in these enlightened days 
to be repudiated, and give place to a more rational scheme, 
from which they should be excluded. Men are now too re- 
lined and civilized, to be regarded any longer as frail and 
wicked creatures, needing any atonement, or the influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit to render them virtuous and hap- 
py, or be condemned to spend their future days in the pre- 
sence, and under the control of such a rude Bear as Satan, 
with company so impolite as Devils, and in such ungen- 
teel apartments as the infernal regions. What! are beings 
whose nature is assimilated to God's, and who partake so 
largely of Divinity, to be so degraded in this world ; and, in 
the next, to be treated with such rudeness and incivility? 
The Gospel, as it came out the hands of Christ and his Apos- 
tles, was in its infancy, and suited to the rude minds of 
Jews and Heathens, and its severe morality and harsh theo- 
logy, were necessary to break down their fierce and ferocious 
spirits, and, bend their stubborn necks to the yoke of disci- 
pline, but its features should be softened, its maxims mitigated 
in rigour, and its commandments lenified, to accommodate it 
to the present polished and illuminated state of the world. 
The minds of men are too restive and impatient under the 
influence of ancient prejudices, too eager in the pursuit of 
novelty, and daring in venturing upon unexplored regions, 
to submit longer to the imposition of a hereditary faith ; 
and they are too much habituated to an unbounded lib- 
erty of action, to allow themselves to be enchained in a se- 
vere and galling moral discipline. Free the Gospel from 
these objectionable traits, enlarge and liberalize its views, re- 
lax the extreme severity of its moral code, and then it will ob- 
tain universal prevalence among civilized nations. Surely, if 
ever rank infidelity and scepticism, can make their appear- 
ance within the sacred precincts of the Temple and the altar, 
we trace them here. If there be such a thing as administer- 
ing poison, along with the holy elements, consecrated at the 
table of the Lord, it is discoverable in the principles and lan= 
guage of this author. 



56 



DISSERTATION IX. 



Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo? 



As the Reverend Author, with whose work upon ecclesias- 
tical affairs the publick are so much interested,' is so greatly- 
dissatisfied with the primitive Church, it would be unreason- 
able to expect, that he should find objects more attractive or 
satisfactory in the modern. Here, of course, he meets with 
ample materials of censure, and an admirable opportunity for 
the display of all his powers of declamation and invective. 
In this attack, too, he is no longer left by that bright frater- 
nity, the Scepticks, to sustain the brunt of the battle, with- 
out encouragement or co-operation. He finds the whole of 
them now enlisted, and fighting by his side. When perusing 
this portion of the Doctor's performance, we could readily 
imagine that we had taken up the philosophical treatises of 
Lord Bolingbroke, were listening to his flowing and harmo- 
nious periods, enjoying the play of his rich and glowing fancy, 
or had our indignation roused by his querulous and carping 
spirit, and virulent and licentious invective. O ! for the power 
of a Warburton, to lay this evil spirit! O! for the united 
force of that Prelate's learning and wit, to unravel this web 
of sophistry, and expose the false pretensions of this shallow 
erudition ! Never was knight more completely unhorsed and 
made to bite the dust, than was Lord Bolingbroke, under the 
assault of Bishop Warburton. We had thought that this idle 
declamation had become stale and vapid even in England, 
where the Church must make some allowance for the wrath 
which she provokes from this gentry, by the dignities with 
which she is invested, and the emoluments she derives from her 
connection with the State. It would be expecting too much 
to suppose, that they would allow her the undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of that wealth, which would be so much better appro- 
priated to their own use. But, that such unpretending and 
unendowed ecclesiastical institutions as we Americans pos- 
sess, should awake so much apprehension, and give rise to so 
much virulent animadversion, is wonderful, and, more especi- 
ally too, when we find this torrent of abuse poured out by one 
of the Clerical order. And, pray, what is the monstrous evil 



57 



existing in the church, which awakens such holy ire, and ex- 
terminating rage ? What is the head and front of Holy Mo- 
ther Church's offending? Forsooth, the imposition of creeds, 
or formularies of faith upon mankind, which the Reverend 
Dr. thinks, prevents the progress of religion towards improve- 
ment and perfection, subjects the mind to vassalage, and im- 
poverishes its powers. Let us consider these charges sepa- 
rately, and see whether they be well or ill-founded, "in truth, 
says Dr. C. a paralizing influence has been working mightily 
for ages, in the Christian world, and we ought not to wonder 
at its results. Free action has been denied to the mind, and 
freedom is an essential condition of growth and power. A. 
fettered limb moves slowly, and operates feebly. The spirit 
pines away in prison, and yet to rear prison-walls around the 
mind, has been the chief toil of ages. The mischiefs of this 
intellectual bondage, are, as yet, we conceive, but imperfectly 
known, and need to be set forth with a new eloquence. If, as 
we believe, progress be the supreme law of the soul, and the 
very aim of its creation, then no wrong can be inflicted on it, 
so grievous, as to bind it down everlastingly to a fixed unva- 
ried creed, especially if this creed was formed in an age of 
darkness, crime, and political and religious strife." Before 
we commence our answer to this rodomontade, we must sub- 
ject the author to the mortification of finding how exactly he 
has followed in the footsteps of Lord Bolingbroke. So strik- 
ing is the resemblance between the sentiments of the two au- 
thors, that it is difficult to conceive that there has not been an 
original: and a copy in the case. " We are taught to think, 
says his Lordship, as others think, not how to think for our- 
selves, and, whilst the memory is loaded, the understanding 
remains unexercised, or exercised in such trammels as to con- 
strain its motions, and direct its pace, until that which was 
artificial, becomes, iu some sort, natural, and the mind can go 
no other." Again, in another part of the same work. 44 The 
Divines follow all their lives, the authority of some particular- 
school, to which tanquam scopulo adherescunt; for, the con- 
dition of the engagement is to defend certain doctrines, and 
even mere forms of speech without examination, or to ex- 
amine only in order to defend them." How admirably these 
bells chime together ! We could fill our pages with this kind 
of slang, from the works of Lord B., did we think it worth 
while to trouble our reader with what, after all, would only 
tend to unsettle the sound principles he may have already 
'formed, and vitiate his moral feelings. We cannot congratu- 
8 



58 



late Dr. C. upon having such a travelling companion ; we 
must not, however, measure other people's sympathies by our 
own. 

The great subject of complaint, then, it seems, is, that man- 
kind collect the articles of their faith into creeds, or formu- 
laries of faith, and teach them to their children. This is a sore 
grievance, it must be admitted, and vastly embarrassing to 
those towering geniuses, whose aims extend to the broaching 
of new theories in theological science, and advancing the re- 
ligion of mankind, from stage to stage in improvement, un- 
til it arrives at such excellence and perfection, that, after 
« wounding and wounding" itself with sceptical " doubts pro- 
found,' 7 it shall terminate the scene by self-murder, and so 
came to an utter end of its career. Really it is trying to the 
patience even of a Job, to listen to this idle declamation, and 
to hear men railing at this extravagant rate, against customs 
and habits, in the highest degree wholesome and judicious, 
and which nothing but their disordered imaginations could 
have so distorted and disfigured into evils, and their jaundiced 
minds have discoloured into objects of disapprobation or cen- 
sure. The learned gentleman must, in the phrenzy of his 
frore-burning zeal, have imagined himself transported to the 
age of Leo Tenth, and the Church of St. Peter's at Rome, 
and have dreamed that he was descanting upon the abo- 
minable corruptions and scandalous impositions of the Papal 
hierarchy, instead of delivering a flattering eulogium upon 
an Arch-Bishop, Bishops, and many distinguished members of 
the Romish communion, pronounced, too, over the very era- 
die of liberty, by a Clergyman of a Denomination that has 
been allowed, without molestation, and even under the pro- 
tection of the Constitution, and guardianship of the laws of 
his country, to discard, at its pleasure, almost all the discri- 
minating tenets of the Gospel. This is all as it should be, 
Dr. Charming; and, to our heart's entire content, except these 
bonds, into which, you say, the minds of men are cast, and 
likely to be held by the practice of imposing creeds, or arti- 
cles of faith upon mankind. We shiver through every fibre 
in our frame, in hearing of these bonds, this dreadful vassal- 
age, these gloomy prison- walls. We had really fed ourselves 
with the hope, that these bonds had been broken asunder, 
this vassalage subverted, and these prison-walls razed to their 
foundations, in the times of Luther, Crammer, Calvin and 
their illustrious C ompeers, in the glorious achievement of re- 
formation, when the thunders of the Papal throne ceased to 



59 



drown the voice of inquiry. As the Dr. seems " instinct with 
the fire and nitre," that enter into the composition of a great 
reformer, and, as we ourselves feel, sometimes, a troublesome 
appetency for a great name, aching at the bottom of the heart, 
and as, after all, circumstances make men, and these times of 
the Christian Church are too calm and unruffled to bring our 
great qualities into publick view ; would that he and we lived 
in a corrupt period of the Church, when we might have all 
our powers called into vigorous requisition, and, by making a 
bold attack upon a vicious establishment, rear perpetual mo- 
numents to our memories ! How delightful it would have been 
to join the great Reformers in their mighty task, but it is so 
distressing an effort against nature, to be working up our 
minds into an artificial heat, converting into Gorgons, hydras, 
and chimeras dire, institutions and customs of the churches, 
that look as gentle as lambs, and innocent as new-born babes, 
and summoning to our aid all those " thick-coming thoughts 
and images," and pouring them in " splendid confusion," to 
dazzle" feeble intellects, and kindle "congenial spirits," 
against an ecclesiastical order, through the whole compass of 
which, the keenest vision can scarcely descry a spot, wrinkle, 
the slightest speck of danger, or the least glimmering prog- 
nostick of future evil. And, were all those portions of Christi- 
anity to be abolished, against wiiich the learned Dr. so vehe- 
mently rages, what would be left to interest the mind, or influ- 
ence the conduct of mankind 1 Truly, we have before heard, 
that Jack, in his holy ire, attempting to strip the Coat be- 
queathed him by his Father, of the ungodly appendages which 
his brother Peter had added to it, tore it from top to bottom; 
but Cousin William, with more reckless resentment would, 
unravel strand after strand, until its whole web be utterly de- 
stroyed, and, then, cast the fragments to the four winds of 
Heaven. Or, to avail ourselves of the excellent similitude of 
an ingenious Italian, who was in England in the time in which 
the contest raged between the conformists and non-conform- 
ists, to their ecclesiastical establishment, the Unitarians re- 
semble the man, who had an excellent knife in his possession, 
but, in order to improve it, he whetted and whetted it, until 
he rubbed off all the steel, and rendered it utterly useless. 
Christianity, in their hands, would be a useless instrument; 
and, as we conceive, that the Creator, in his wisdom, has con- 
nected the expedient with the true, by links of an insepara- 
ble chain, we think we have solid ground for the conclusion, 
that Unitarianism has not its foundation in truth. 



60 



What can be the cause of this holy rage, into which the 
Br. is thrown, by the creeds of the different churches, and 
what are the benefits which he anticipates from the disconti- 
nuance of that custom, which leads to the imposition of them? 
In what other shape, besides those under which they have al- 
ready appeared, would he expect liberty of thinking and act- 
ing displayed ? In the investigations of science ? But, we 
all know, that, in England and in our country, science is as 
free as air, in pursuing her researches into the properties 
and laws of nature. If Copernicus and Des Cartes, in the 
morning of the great day of reformation, heard some rumb- 
lings of dissatisfaction and complaint, from the prevailing bi- 
gotry and intolerance, and Gallileo was imprisoned, because 
He had the power of vision, and could not avoid seeing the 
Heavenly Bodies Copernicise through his telescope; it was, 
because in the one country, the reformation had but imper- 
fectly performed its work, and, in the other, the tolerant spi- 
rit of the Protestant faith had not breathed its odours, but 
the Papal tyranny subsisted in all its rigour. But who inter- 
fered with Newton, in his successful attempt to establish, by 
strict demonstration, what Copernicus had conjectured, and 
Gallileo confirmed by fact and observation ? Who molested 
that long succession of Deists and Atheists, w T ho, commencing 
with Hobbs, poured from the English press, every impious 
system that learned ingenuity could devise, and every idle 
and pernicious whimsy that vanity and folly could engender? 
England, with true magnanimity, has borne every outrage 
upon her faith, and her admirable Church, with pious confi- 
dence in God, has awaited the result in patience, not doubt- 
ing that the truth will ultimately triumph, and the promises 
of Jehovah be fulfilled. In France, too, we find abundant and 
melancholy proof, that no vassalage has been imposed upon 
the human mind, and the history of its career in free exertion, 
after its long wonted emancipation, has been written in* cha- 
racters of blood. Are we anxious that liberty of thinking, 
should display itself, by passing through the acts of such a 
tragedy,or such unnumbered tragedies as were there perform- 
ed? But, perhaps, we are answered, it is not denied, that man- 
kind have gained those civil and religious liberties, which are 
essential to their growth and prosperity, and that they are 
disposed to resist strenuously and successfully, every attack 
upon their rights as members both of Church and State, but 
still, men, by the imposition of creeds upon each other, and 
distinguishing denominations by peculiar articles of faith, to 



61 



which they inflexibly adhere, deprive themselves and others 
of liberty of thinking upon the great and leading doc- 
trines and principles of Christianity. Is not this sugges- 
tion completely refuted, by the multitude of sects, into which 
Christendom is now divided ? Has not every man liberty 
to believe in what doctrines he prefers, and the right too of 
expressing and avowing his opinions, and, if he think it ad- 
visable, to make converts to his scheme? Is there any 
error, impiety, folly, or absurdity, that has not already 
been broached and maintained by some sect, and in some 
country? And what more could be done, if all creeds were 
abolished, and every individual left to think for himself, from 
the earliest period of life? This view of the subject, cer- 
tainly puts Dr. C. and his adherents to a non-plus upon this 
topick. Creeds have not held them in a state of intellectual 
bondage, as is well known, since they have abandoned almost 
every tenet which their forefathers regarded as sacred and 
inviolable, and have indulged a latitude of thinking which 
would have made those venerable christians shudder. And we 
say to them, without hesitation, proceed, gentlemen, in your 
career, without restriction or limitation. Let system blow 
up system, and doctrine subvert doctrine; if you have any 
recondite truths in store, let them fly out of the ark, and they 
will be sure to find some hand extended to receive and wel- 
come them, without being long condemned to wing their way 
over the solitary floods. No one attempts to molest you, no 
one even opposes you, but with the spiritual weapons of ar- 
gument and bland persuasion. Should you not be entirely 
satisfied, with this unbounded indulgence, this unmolested 
prosecution of your course ? Is it your province to sit in 
judgment upon our modes of preceeding, and habits of think- 
ing, and commence a tirade of railing accusation, and viru- 
lent invective against us, because w r e collect into manuals 
our views of revealed truth, and inculcate them upon our 
offspring, deeming them, as we do, essential to their happi- 
ness both in this world and the next? Is there not great pre- 
sumption in your undertaking, to fix upon us the imputation 
of being degraded to a state of mental vassalage, of being 
reduced to bondage, and confined within prison walls of error 
and prejudice, when upon the coolest exercise of the powers 
of our mind, and the most dispassionate investigation, we 
prefer our God to your God, our Christ to your Christ, our 
Holy Spirit to your Holy Spirit, our morality to your moral- 
ity, and our Christianity to your Christianity ? We have no 



62 



hankering of the mind after that distinction which is acquir- 
ed by broaching novel opinions, nor are we disposed to give 
up sound and wholesome truth because it is old, or embrace 
crudity and folly because they have the charm of novelty. 
We rather suspect, that truth, whenever drawn up from the 
depths of that well, in which the ancients beautifully repre- 
sented her as taking up her abode, will always be found to be 
very aged, although our acquantance with her may be of 
short duration, no less aged than the mind of God himself, 
having had her residence in his bosom from all eternity. The 
Heavenly bodies had gravitated towards each other from 
the morning of the creation, by the same law which the great 
New ton disclosed, and it would be a strange species of logick 
indeed, to declare that the great truths which were unfolded 
by the luminous mind of that Philosopher, should not be 
taught to mankind, or collected into a manual of instruction 
for our youth, lest we should, by this act, reduce their minds 
to a state of vassalage, deprive them of the liberty of think- 
ing for themselves, and trammel their faculties in their inqui- 
ries after new truth. Would Dr. C. upon such a subject or 
upon that of any other branch of science, have the confidence 
to maintain such an opinion, or hazard the proposal? Why 
then, has he adventured to do it in regard to religion ? Does 
not this circumstance demonstrate, that he is a sceptick in re- 
gard to all the peculiar doctrines of Christianity ? If there be 
one solitary truth comprised in the w^hole sheme which he 
thinks sound and irrefragable, would he not recoil from the 
suggestion, that the time may arrive in which it shall be dis- 
carded? Ah ! here he, insensibly to himself, reveals the secret 
workings of his mind; and, if amidst those secret operations, 
his heart has never, like the fool's, whispered there is no God, 
it is too much to be apprehended, from the vein of thought 
that runs through his work, that its familiar language is, 
there is no Saviour, no revelation from Heaven, no supernatu- 
ral intercourse between God and man, no resurrection, no 
certainty of a future state. The fact is, that the idea of ex- 
cluding all creeds, or formularies of belief, and of letting 
youth advance to manhood without giving them some in- 
structions in religion, and grafting upon their minds the rudi- 
ments of the faith, is as wild and chimerical as any whimsy 
that ever entered into the head of an enthusiast. If we 
would teach them nothing more than that there is a God, a 
future state, an equal distribution of rewards and punish- 
ments, in that future state, these sacred maxims ought to be 



I 



63 



written in letters of gold, and made the theme of daily admo- 
nition to them. The human mind, in youth, is perpetually 
acquiring information of some sort, and if it be not pre-oc- 
cupied with truth, with sound principles and correct opin- 
ions, it will be overrun with errors, and contract most de- 
structive habits both of thinking and acting. If it be not con- 
ducted, and that too by a strong and steady hand, in the path 
of virtue, it will pursue those paths of vice that lead to shame, 
misery, and present, as well as everlasting ruin. Let us for the 
sake of common sense and decency, of morals, of mankind, of 
God himself, never again hear of the enslaving tendency of 
creeds, or of the advantages which might redound to us from 
leaving our youth at liberty to form their own opinions, unin- 
fluenced by authority and uncontrolled by prejudice and pre- 
possession. 

But Dr. C. has another object presenting itself to his vision 
in the church, that aw^akes his high indignation, and exhausts 
his powers of declamation and stricture ; and this is found in 
the dullness of religious books, and the impoverishing tenden- 
cy of theological treatises. It is somowhat singular to hear a 
clergyman, or pastor of a christian denomination, taking part 
with the scornful and profligate, and speaking in terms of 
disparagement and contempt of the performances of his own 
order even supposing the railing accusation well founded. Is 
he acting upon the principle ascribed to Aristotle, in his phi- 
losophical productions, who is accused of having pursued 
the policy of an Eastern Tyrant, that strangles or beheads all 
the Imperial Family, that he may have no rivals and compet- 
itors in the Empire? This would be excessive cruelty towards 
living authors, and quite inhuman thus to molest and insult 
the dead. Let us hear him however speak for himself, that 
there may be no misconception of his views. " It is a sad 
truth that religious books are preeminently dull, and if we 
wished to impoverish a man's intellect, we could devise few 
means more effectual than to confine him to what is called a 
course of theological reading. That a theme so vast, so sub- • 
lime as Christianity, embracing God and man, Earth and 
Heaven, time and eternity, connected intimately with all hu- 
man history, deriving lights from all human experience, ad- 
mitting application to the whole of human life, and propo- 
sing as its great end the everlasting progress of the soul ; 
That such a subject should be treated so monotonously as to 
be proverbially dull, that its professed explorers should be 
able to plant their footsteps so exactly in the track of their 



64 



predecessors, that the boundlessness of the field should so sel- 
dom tempt an adventurous spirit from the beaten way, is 
wonderful, and might seem a miracle to a man unacquainted 
with the vassalage which has broken down the mind in the 
department of religion." This is, indeed, very flourishing 
rhetorick and a specimen of splendid declamation, much in 
the spirit of Bolingbroke, who here also glitters in invective, 
exactly in concord with our author; but, unhappily, it is sub- 
ject to one capital objection, which, in these days, seems to be 
too little regarded, in what is called elegant composition ; al- 
though, in our estimation, it is fatal to it, it is not just think- 
ing. This writer, we think, would have done well to recollect 
throughout all' his treatises, that just and profound views of 
things, clear conceptions, solid reasonings and conclusions le- 
gimately deduced from premises, form the only solid founda- 
tions of fine writing, .^cribendi recte sapere est principium 
et fons. When these are once attained, then come in turn, 
the selection and harmonious collocation of words, the embel- 
lishments of fancy, engaging suavity of manner, apt and beau- 
tiful Illustrations, and all the nameless artifices of finished 
composition. We have said, that the sentiment expressed in 
this quotation, is not just. He states what he deems some mo- 
ral phenomena, which exist, indeed, only in his own distem- 
pered fancy, and are presented only to his jaundiced vision, 
but of which, even supposing them to be real, he gives a false 
solution. He is guilty of that logical sophism, called non causa 
pro causa, or the assignation of a false cause for the facts ex- 
hibited. Rjeligious books, considering their kind, like all 
other productions of human genius, are sometimes dull, and, 
sometimes—what shall we say ? sometimes — not so. For, we 
presume the Reverend author does not expect us, in present- 
ing the other alternative, to affirm that they are, sometimes, 
gay and entertaining, w hich are the correspondent terms to 
dull. It would be a singular species of pious treatises, or 
works upon divinity, and something new under the sun, in 
contradiction of the wise man, of which we should be able 
to assert, that they were lively, wilty, brilliant, vastly amus- 
ing, and this state of things will not be likely to turn up 
amidst the endless vicissitudes of human life, and the manifold 
freaks of fashion in literature, until we shall all, like Mr. 
Paine, be able to find a jest book in the Proverbs of Solomon, 
or a very merry tale in the account of the crucifixion. What, 
then, is it, of which the Dr. complains, in these religious 
books and theological treatises ? For ourselves, we can say we 



65 



have spent a half century, since our birth into this wicked 
world, and, two-thirds of that time have been employed in 
study, and, principally, the study of religious and theological 
books ; and, so far from being disgusted, so little sated have 
we become with this employment, that we should have great 
satisfaction in the anticipation, were the thing possible, or con- 
sistent with the will of God, of devoting to the same occu- 
pation half a century more. What has the Dr. been in the 
habit of expecting from theological works and religious trea- 
tises ? Would he have had the Bible, to begin with the great- 
est, as entertaining and grotesque a performance, as the Ara- 
bian Nights' Entertainments, Gil Bias, or Tom Jones, not to 
mention Sir Charles Grandison, as this is sometimes depreci- 
ated into a dull and heavy production ? Would he require of 
Stillingfleet, to have rendered his Origines sacrse, as lively and 
agreeable as Tooke's amours and intrigues of Jupiter and the 
Gods ; and Clarkes's demonstration, as crowded with charac- 
ter and incidents, between his premises and conclusions, as 
one of the plays of Shakspeare, between the commencement 
and catastrophe of the drama ? Should Butler, in his analogy, 
be expected to rival in playful fancy and burlesque, his illus- 
trious namesake, in his Kudibras ? Cud worth, Kennicot, Pri- 
deaux and Person, have interspersed their ponderous volumes 
with as much wit and pleasantry, as flowed from Rabelais' 
easy chair, the mouth of Uncle Toby, or from the sapient 
tongue of the Knight of La Maricha, and his renowned 
Squire? Although we are willing to allow, that it would be 
somewhat more reasonable to have required the illustrious 
author of the Divine Legation of Moses, from their greater 
proximity in character and kindred, to have contested the 
palm of victory with the author of the Tale of a Tub, the 
travels of Gulliver, and the writers of romance. These would 
be hard conditions imposed on writers upon theology, and 
composers of religious tracts, to be at once solemn and spright- 
ly, grave and gay, serious and playful, tragical and comical, 
pious and ludicrous, pathetick and amusing, contemplative 
and frolicksome; and would be so singular a species of writ- 
ing, as to require the invention of a new name to designate 
it. The instructive and amusing, the tragick and comick, have 
before been heard of w T ithin the precincts of fine writing, and 
amidst the walks of literature ; but, such an incongruous and 
grotesque mixture, as seems to be contemplated by this writer, 
is unknown to the existing rhetorical nomenclature, abundant 
as Rhetoricians have proved, in the invention of " names, to 
9 



66 



designate their tools." Alas! We are afraid, if religious books 
are found dull, insipid, and irksome, it is more the fault of 
readers, than of writers. The deep depravity of our nature, 
that nature which the Dr. so highly extols, and represents as 
partaking largely of divinity, disinclines us to holy exercises, 
and converts every act into a constraint, that is performed in 
the service of God, which drags down our affections to earth, 
when they should be ascending on the wings of pious con- 
templation to Heaven, and engages us supremely in temporal 
pursuits and enjoyments, when we should be rioting amidst 
the fulness and perfection of celestial bliss. But, when Dr. C. 
ascribes, what he supposes to be deficiencies, in religious and 
theological works, to the imposition of a fixed and invariable 
scheme of doctrines, which binds down the minds of men in 
a state of vassalage, and causes them invariably to pursue 
the same beaten tracks, it appears to us, that he has most 
egregriously missed .his mark. For, allow us to inquire, how 
can this representation of the case be true ? Are not the rich- 
est and most extensive fields, now open to the Christian 
Preacher and writer, to be cultivated, and which have been 
cultivated by the choicest geniuses, not only without being 
exhausted or impoverished, but which have been enriched by 
that culture ? Are not those very fields which are designated 
by himself, at this time, opened to every orthodox Divine ? 
To show that they are, let us recur to the passage, and enu- 
merate the particulars. " That a theme, says he, so vast, so 
sublime as Christianity, embracing God and man, Earth and 
Heaven, time and eternity." Do not these subjects stand as 
common materials, to be worked upon by all writers and 
speakers, whether they be wedded to a fixed creed or not 1 
Does any one's creed prevent him from glancing from God to 
man, and ranging through Earth and Heaven, time and eter- 
nity, to supply topicks of argument, and gather images of 
beauty, sublimity, and. pathos, with which to astonish, elec- 
trify, enrapture, or chill his hearer and reader? But, the Dr. 
proceeds, " Connected with all human history, deriving lights 
from all human experience, admitting application to the 
whole of human life, and proposing, as its great end, the ever- 
lasting progress of the soul." Still, as we are within the cate- 
gory of human nature, the writer must allow that these are 
topicks subject to the control of all persons alike. What! Is 
there any creed within the vast boundaries of Christendom, 
which prevents the writer from drawing his resources from 
all human history, and all human experience, applying his 



67 



maxims to all human life, and tracing the progress of the soul 
through eternity ? Are not these the precise themes of pulpit 
eloquence, and theological dissertation? The Dr. must extend 
his enumeration of topicks some further, before he meets with 
one placed out of the boundaries of those excursions, familiar- 
ly taken by the orthodox Clergy, and thereby make good his 
accusation against the articles of belief usually received 
in all-Christian Churches. Pray, Dr., is it not in the power of 
Christian Divines, at this time, in Episcopalian, Presbyterian, 
or, as you seem to prefer the title, in Roman Catholick 
churches, to treat as boldly as Saurin, and eloquently as De= 
mosthenes, not to say as freely as Dr. Priestley, of God and 
man, of Earth and Heaven, time arid eternity, to draw his 
lessons of moral and religious instruction from that rich field 
of moral experiment, human and (we add, as not forgetting 
our good old book, the Bible,) divine history, from human ex- 
perience and human life, and from the progress of the soul 
through eternity ? Is not this a sphere, through which all 
orators and writers may wing the flight of their imagination? 
But, Dr., you think that the very boundlessness of the field, 
should tempt some adventurous spirits from the beaten way. 
This, then, must be the fault of their genius, and arise out of 
the want of a spirit of enterprise and activity. If the bound- 
less territory is stretched before them, and they, instead of 
exploring it with a free and daring spirit, like lazy travellers, 
prefer to follow the same beaten track, to their manifest dis- 
advantage, they must lay their failure to the account of their 
own folly and deficiency, and not blame their creed for it. 
Their creed confines them to no other limits within that illi- 
mitable space, but those of truth, nature, and sound sense; 
and, we presume, you could not wish them, in their adven- 
turous flights, to pass the boundaries of these, lest, like Satan, 
when breaking through the gates of hell, they should find 
themselves transported into the regions of chaos, and old night. 
Ah ! "who shall tempt, with daring feet, that dark, unfathom- 
ed, bottomless abyss, and, through the palpable obscure, find 
out his uncouth way V If once translated to this anarchic 
kingdom, they might find themselves frequently borne aloft 
in their career, like the arch-enemy of our race, by the strong 
rebuff of " many a tumultuous cloud, instinct with fire and 
nitre." 

But, to relinquish our figurative representations, not only 
do we maintain that the Christian Divine, who is regulated 
m all his inquiries and declamations by a fixed creed, has as 



68 



wide and rich afield spread before him, as the Unitarian whd 
discards it, but, inasmuch as the articles of his belief are more 
numerous and interesting, the materials which the first is to 
work upon, are more abundant and precious, than those of the 
last. The cold and heartless scheme of the Unitarian, ex- 
cludes many of the most fruitful and touching topicks of per- 
suasion. Is there a richer portion of ground, within the whole 
scope of pulpit oratory, than that which is moistened with a 
Saviour's blood ? And can the orator derive no resources for 
the exercise of the highest powers of his art, from the sub- 
lime mystery of the Trinity, from the august character of 
Christ as a Divine Being, from the magnificence of his scheme 
of salvation, from the grandeur of the victim offered upon the 
cross, from the effusion of the Holy Ghost, from the fall and 
deep depravity of mankind, from the warfare perpetually 
waged with our race, by the Grand Adversary, and from an 
appeal to those flames inconsumable, in which the guilty are 
tormented for their transgressions, through all eternity ? Cer- 
tainly, if religious and theological works are to be enriched 
and rendered interesting, by the extent and fertility of the 
field of inquiry and dissertation, which is opened to them, the 
works of the orthodox Clergy are much more likely to attract 
and engage attention, than those which are written by Di- 
vines, who, by releasing themselves from the restraints of un- 
varying creeds, cut themselves off from the most opulent and 
productive topicks of eloquence. 

But, after all, Reverend Dr., suppose your scheme to be 
carried into complete operation — free the mind from the influ- 
ence of creeds- — break down " those prison-walls which the 
toils of ages have erected," to confine the heaven-born facul- 
ties of men, and let reason walk abroad upon the Earth, re- 
generated, disenthralled, secured from all control, and protect- 
ed in its boldest efforts, by Mr. Curran's " irresistible genius 
of universal emancipation ;" do you suppose, that any im- 
portant benefits would result to the Church, or to mankind ? 
Under that degree of religious toleration, which the benig- 
nant spirit that breathes in the Protestant Churches has pro- 
duced, we already perceive, that every error and absurdity that 
the human mind can well conceive, has raised its miscreated 
front. Is it not enough, that the pulpit has been converted in- 
to a vehicle of heresy and schism, and that which was intend- 
ed by the Saviour, to become a fountain of light and salva- 
tion to the people, has shed a baleful and portentous darkness 
through the land? Already, to use the language of the Poet, 



69 



has this " ecclesiastick drum" resounded, in quick succession, 
not only with all those various and discordant systems, which 
receive the civil appellation of orthodox, and, thank God in 
most fundamental points, are entitled to it ; but, also, with 
that " leash of piebald languages," and all that " Babylonish 
dialect" of sects, which, in different ages and nations, have 
been engendered in the brain, and emitted from the mouths 
of ignorance, folly, and fanaticism. Do not these multitudi- 
nous sects show, beyond controversy, that, in the Christian 
Church, there has been no want of liberty, either in speaking 
or creed-making ? And does not the history of the operations 
of the press, both in England and America, the evening and 
morning stars of liberty, incontestably demonstrate, that, as 
relates to mankind at large, there have been no chains rivet- 
ed upon the mind ? Commencing with the blank atheism of 
Hume, Spinoza and Helvetius, we have seen meteoric theory 
after theory, pass through the hemisphere of Europe, until, 
stopping in their course over France, at that period, unhappy 
France, they exploded, and, falling upon her soil, broke asun- 
der, and spread around, affright, conflagration, and tremen- 
dous ruin. Besides this baleful atheism, we find the press in 
England, France and America,teeming with the refined Deism 
of Bolingbroke, Shaftesbury and Gibbon, the rank and viru- 
lent infidelity of Voltaire and Rousseau, the coarse and 
shameless blasphemies of Paine, and his outlawed associates 
in impiety, and, to crown the whole of the choice blessings 
which this philanthropick band have conferred upon man- 
kind, the ridiculous reveries, the unprophetick visions, and 
the eccentrick whimsies of Volney, Drummond, and all the 
whole tribe of those rabid interpreters of scripture, by celes- 
tial signs, who have not only given proof of the unlimited 
freedom of thinking and the press, in our day, but have fur- 
nished also conclusive evidence to mankind, that their intel- 
lects were disordered, and their imaginations peopled with 
chimeras, by a sun-struck phrenzy of the brain. Have we not 
now sufficiently proved, that the minds of men have neither 
been trammelled down by creeds, nor prevented from pro- 
ducing interesting religious and theological works, by the 
want of freedom in their exertions? Have we not discovered 
a sufficient number of *" adventurous spirits," who deserted 
the " beaten track," and traversed unexplored regions ? 



70 



DISSERTATION X. 



Nocturna versate manu, versate diuma. — Horace. 



" As a striking proof of the poverty of religious literature, 
and of the general barrenness of the intellect, when employ- 
ed in this field, we may refer to the small amount of original 
and productive thought in the English Church, since the days 
of Barrow and Taylor. Could our voice be heard in England, 
we should ask impartial and gifted men, more familiar with 
their country's history than ourselves, to solve the problem, 
how a Protestant establishment, so munificently endowed 
with the means of improvement, should have done so little, 
in so long a period, for Christianity, should have produced so 
few books to interest the higher order of minds." This is a 
rare specimen of the querulous spirit, and loose invective, in 
which these tracts are composed. Would any one believe, 
that, in the two pages which follow these observations, the 
author has enumerated, among the number of English wri- 
ters, upon subjects of divinity, the names of Clarke, Butler, 
Hurd, Jortin, Parr, Hammond, Pearce, Wilson, Berkeley, 
Heber, Whitby, Warburto.n, Horsley, Lowth, Sherlock, Til- 
lotson, Seeker, Porteus, Paley? Would not these alone, sup- 
posing them to include the whole list of writers of this de- 
scription, who have appeared since the times of Barrow and 
Taylor, completely exonerate their church from the imputa- 
tion which he has cast upon her, of being unfruitful of distin- 
guished authors? Happy is any establishment, in any coun- 
try, which can boast of so many illustrious men, to adorn its 
history, in the course of one century and an half! What other 
church establishment that ever existed, can proudly claim a 
like or equal number \ France, in the age of Lewis XIV, and, 
afterwards, w-as -greatly blessed with illustrious Divines, but 
she, at no period, ever produced such a bright assemblage of 
clerical talent, as did England, in the very asra to which refer- 
ence is made. So far from there being a" dearth or deficiency in 
clerical talent and attainment, in the establishment in England, 
the student of Divinity is oppressed with the number, magni- 
tude, and excellence of their works. It is the toil of a clergy- 
man's life, to obtain that rich, copious and varied banquet of 



71 



learning and science, which they convey to him. What sub- 
ject of divinity can be mentioned, upon which we cannot ob- 
tain full and entire satisfaction, from some English author ? 
They have sounded every depth, traversed every coast, and 
circumnavigated every sea, in the science of natural and re- 
vealed religion. Transfusing into the English tongue, all the 
valuable materials contained in the early and later Fathers, 
and all the finest sentiments of the Latin and Greek Classieks, 
they have made them tributary to their own religious litera- 
ture, and communicate a more exquisite finishing to the pro- 
ductions of their own genius. We greatly admire the elo- 
quence of the French Preachers; they delightfully spread the 
colours of the imagination over every subject, and, by this 
means, captivate all hearts, We stand astonished at the pon- 
derous productions and accumulated learning of the German 
scholars; but the English are always more profound, more clear 
and satisfactory, and reach their conclusions by more cogent 
arguments. Can any thing be more replete with useful erudi- 
tion, and richer and more attractive in style, than the works 
of Stillingfleet, Barrow and Jeremy Taylor, more transpa- 
rent in clearness, more cogent in argument, more just and pro- 
found in thought, than those of Samuel Clarke, Berkeley and 
Butler, more neat, chastened and satisfactory, and a more 
finished model of the philosophical style than Paley, and more 
abundant in wit and erudition, than Swift and Warburton ? 
In philology, in biblical criticism, in sacred literature, in theo- 
logical disquisition, and in systematick divinity, they furnish 
specimens of unrivalled excellence. We cannot conceive what 
more Could have been expected of the Church of England, 
than she has actually accomplished. She is allowed, upon all 
hands, to have been the bulwark of the reformation; and, 
never did her Navy upon the ocean, or her army .upon land, 
achieve a more complete and signal victory, than that which 
her learned champions of the reformation, obtained in the 
controversy which she sustained with the Church of Rome. 
Their triumph has been as complete, over those infidels and 
scepticks, who subsequently endeavoured to overthrow Chris- 
tianity. What more could we desire or expect? It is true, 
that, from a peculiar concurrence of causes, the Divines of 
England have not excelled in that vehement and persuasive 
eloquence, which strongly operates upon popular feeling, al- 
though they have furnished abundant specimens of the most 
finished pieces of pulpit disquisition. This is a fact, which is 
easily explained, without in the slightest degree detracting 



72 



from the capacity of that Nation, to have equally excelled in 
efforts of this nature, had their native talents been properly 
cultivated, and directed to that object. Make popular elo- 
quence of great importance in a Nation, let this become the 
ladder by which men are to ascend to eminence, station, 
- wealth and dignity, and immediately all the latent powers of 
oratory are brought into requisition; the most strenuous ex- 
ertions are made to attain superiority, collision and competi- 
tion stimulate to vigorous and persevering exertions, the po- 
pular acclamations that attend the career of one successful 
orator, awake the burning emulation and dormant energies of 
another, until eloquence, in a few generations, attains to the 
highest pitch of excellence, and exhibits its most accomplish- 
ed models. It was through this process, that Greece and Rome 
passed to their unrivalled excellence in this art. It was by 
this means, that Rome brought into view, her Hortensius, her 
Caesar, her Crassus, and her Cicero. In England, this art has 
not reached the same perfection, because the same means have 
not been adopted, to stimulate the Nation to the cultivation 
of it. But, if Greece and Rome have excelled England in elo- 
quence, England has equally surpassed them in science and 
philosophy, because these, in that country, were made as great 
an object of pursuit to the human mind, as was the oratorical 
profession, among those ancient Nations. Another, too, and, 
perhaps, still more operative cause, which has prevented the 
growth of popular eloquence, in the English pulpit, were those 
very circumstances, which, on other accounts, were so favour- 
able to the growth and prosperity of the Church. These are 
the independence which the Church derives from the State, 
and the habit of reading discourses from the pulpit. What- 
ever may be the benefits of this mode of conveying in- 
struction to the people, and* we believe they are so numerous 
and great, as completely to turn the scale in its favour, when 
counterpoised by those arising out of the opposite method of 
speaking, it is certain, that it will forever close the door against 
the rise and growth of the highest kind of eloquence in the 
pulpit. These are the causes, that have prevented the Eng- 
lish establishment from presenting us with the finest speci- 
mens of popular eloquence. And the same reasons will serve 
to explain, what we have sometimes heard alleged, in dispa- 
ragement of the House of Bishops, in England, that so few of 
them have been distinguished in Parliamentary Debate. The 
habits of these learned and able Prelates, lead them to the 
attainment of erudition, rather than to acquire adroitness, 



73 



readiness and fluency, in the discussion of political questions ; 
besides, that, from their previous studies, so exclusively theo- 
logical and literary, or scientifick, they are in want of those 
intermediate ideas which conduct them to their conclusions, 
or of that political information, which would be necessary to 
enable them to comprehend those subjects which come under 
consideration in Parliament. Their silence, in such cases, is 
oftentimes a proof of wisdom, while, in their talents and eru- 
dition, they greatly surpass the most accomplished disputants 
in the House. 

We conclude, therefore, upon the whole, that the Church of 
England, instead of being barren of illustrious writers, has 
furnished to the nation her full proportion of them ; and it 
might be shown, that, in this respect, theology has completely 
kept pace with the other branches of science and literature, 
in that country. There never has been a period in the history 
of England, in which the body of the clergy was eclipsed, 
or overshadowed by men of talents and learning, in the other 
departments of the social state. We think that Dr. C. is 
scarcely aware of the immense advantages he would derive 
from a more familiar acquaintance with their writings, and 
from more carefully forming his taste upon them as models, 
God grant, that the churches of our country, may present to 
her a number of Divines equally illustrious, and who may as 
effectually animate them with their piety, and adorn them by 
their talents and acquirement? >* 

* See note A. at the appendix, 



JO 



i4 



DISSERTATION XI. 



Qui in omni re rationem requirunt, rationem ipsara subvertunt 

Theoph. in Metaph. 

Passing from the portions of Dr. C.'s tracts, which relate 
to politicks, we proceed next to a consideration of the princi- 
ples maintained by him, in the sermon delivered at the ordi- 
nation of the Reverend Jared Sparks, in Baltimore. The sub- 
ject of this discourse, as stated in the commencement, is to 
ascertain the principles by which he, and t he religious Society 
to which he belongs, are regulated in the interpretation of 
scripture. There is nothing delivered on this head, in which 
all intelligent Christians do not agree in theory, although they 
might not make a like practical application of the principles. 
The difficulty which arises upon this subject, to which he re- 
fers, and which is familiarly known to Divines and readers of 
books upon divinity, is to determine the proper authority of 
reason, in interpreting a revelation from Heaven. Two ex- 
tremes, in this case, are perceptible to the most superficial ob- 
server. The one consists in decrying the faculty of reason, 
•with a view to extol revelation; in which case, it is spoken 
of in terms of such disparagement and vilification, as if it 
were totally incapable of becoming a safe guide, in testing 
the truth of a divine revelation; as if God could ever intend, 
that we should undervalue or despise his natural mode of 
communicating information to us, in order that we might affix 
a higher valuation upon that which is supernatural. The other 
extreme, equally to be deprecated, is that which elevates rea- 
son into an infallible judge, in all cases of the truths which are 
revealed from Heaven. Dr. C. seems to speak upon this sub- 
ject, as if the views which he and his associates entertain, 
were more liberal and rational, than those of orthodox Chris- 
tians. It is true, that some Divines of the orthodox churches, 
do indulge themselves in indiscreet invectives against reason, 
as a criterion of the truth of divine revelation, insisting that 
fallible man is not to call in question the wisdom of an infalli- 
ble God, forgetting that the very point to be determined, is. 
whether what is conveyed to us, does come from God: 
and, into this excess of zeal they have been driven, by the 
extravagant claims which are assumed by others, in favour 



/a 

of the human mind, to decide about all truth whatsoever. 
But those Divines, who appear to us to have had the most cor- 
rect conceptions of the limits of human understanding, have 
pursued a middle course between these two opposite ex- 
tremes. We think that no one with whose works we are ac- 
quainted, has determined with greater precision and accura- 
cy, at what point the legitimate use of reason terminates, 
and its abuse commences, than Mr. Locke, in his essay upon 
human understanding, and we would state his opinion, as 
agreeing exactly with that which we ourselves entertain. 
" Reason, says Mr. Locke, is natural revelation, whereby the 
eternal Father of lights, and fountain of all knowledge, com- 
municates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid 
within the reach of their natural faculties. Revelation is 
natural reason enlarged by a new set of discoveries, commu- 
nicated by God immediately, which reason vouches the truth 
of, by the testimony and proofs it gives, that they come from 
God. So that he that takes away reason to make way for rev- 
elation, puts out the light of both, and does much the same, as 
if he would persuade a man to put out his eyes, the better to 
receive the remote light of an invisible star with a Tele- 
scope." This is a strong, correct, and impressive illustration of 
the subject, and, we presume, entirely accordant to the sen 
timents of intelligent men of all parties, however they may 
differ in the application of it. Under this representation, it is 
to be observed, that reason is not only the eye that is to be- 
hold the remote star through a Telescope, but its office also 
is, to vouch the truth of revelation from the testimony and 
proof given. Now, the proofs of revelation, as we know, are 
various, some being external, and some internal. And, as un- 
der the appellation of the internal, are included the confor- 
mity of its declarations to the known character of God, and 
the clear and unbiassed dictates of the human mind, if there 
should be any thing discovered in a work professing to be 
communicated from God, which contradicts the evident dic- 
tates of right reason, or which is clearly incompatible with 
his attributes, this, of course, would invalidate and entirely 
destroy its credibility. By this statement of the case, we pre- 
sume, we allow to reason as large a commission, and grant it as 
extensive jurisdiction, as any intelligent man could desire, al- 
though not more than seems to be extended to it in the word 
of God itself. We trust this representation of the preroga- 
tives assigned to reason, in testing the claims of divine reve- 
lation, will clearly prove that we are neither bigot nor seep- 



76 



tick ; and we are entirely willing that the orthodox doctrines, 
deduced from this revelation, should be tried by the touch- 
stone of this rule of interpretation. 

Let us see, then, if we cannot meet the Dr. with this test in 
our possession, in the open field of argument, and defend our 
creed against any objections he can allege. His great object of 
attack is, of course, the sublime mystery of a Trinity of persons 
in the Godhead, which, strange to tell, and it is decisive proof 
that it is well-founded, although assailed in all ages by so much 
serious argument, vulgar abuse, and impious pleasantry, has 
held its ground, and seems likely still to hold it, in spite of 
the systematick and persevering efforts recently aimed at its 
subversion. Thus he refers to it : " We object to the doctrine 
of the Trinity, that, whilst acknowledging in words, it sub- 
verts in effect, the unity of God. According to this doctrine, 
there are three infinite and equal Persons, possessing Supreme 
Divinity, called the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Each of 
these Persons, as described by Theologians, has his own par- 
ticular consciousness, will, and perceptions. They love each 
other, and delight in each other's society. They perform dif- 
ferent parts in man's redemption, each having his appropri- 
ate office, and neither doing the work of the other. The Son 
is mediator, and not the Father. The Father sends the Son, 
and is not himself sent, nor is he conscious, like the Son, of 
taking flesh. Here, then, we have three intelligent agents, 
possessed of different consciousnesses, different wills, and dif- 
ferent perceptions, performing different acts, and sustaining 
different relations ; and, if these things do not constitute three 
minds or Beings, we are utterly at a loss to know how three 
Blinds or Beings are to be formed. It is difference of proper- 
ties, acts, and consciousnesses, w T hich lead us to the belief of 
different intelligent Beings, and, if this mark fails us, our 
whole knowledge falls ; we have no proof that all the Agents 
and Persons in the Uuiverse, are not one and the same mind." 

In the conclusion of that work of Sir Isaac Newton, called 
his principia, which all who are skilled in mathematical sci- 
ence, allow to be the greatest production of human genius, 
we find the following account of Almighty God, which very 
happily concludes a performance, that relates to that most 
magnificent part of his creation, the planetary system. We 
introduce it in this place, in order to show, that the whole of 
this subject of the nature and attributes of God, is utterly 
incomprehensible to human reason, overwhelms the faculties 
of the mind with the grandeur of the conceptions to which 



77 



it gives rise, and deeply impresses upon it the utter impo» 
tence of all its attempts to compass the vast and illimitable 
idea. We are not more embarrassed with the account which 
Dr. C. has just given of the Trinity, than we are with New- 
ton's representation of God, to which no theologian objects, 
'* God, says this inimitable Philosopher, is the same God al= 
ways and every where. He is omnipresent, not virtually, but 
also substantially, for virtue cannot subsist without substance, 
In him are all things contained and moved, yet neither affects 
the other; God suffers nothing from the motion of bodies, 
bodies find no resistance from the omnipresence of God. It is 
allowed by all, that the supreme God exists necessarily, and, 
by the same necessity, he exists always and every where. 
Whence, also, he is all similar, all eye, all ear, all arm, all 
brain, all power to perceive, to understand, and to act ; but 
in a manner not at ail human, in a manner not at all corpo- 
real, in a manner utterly unknown to us. As a blind man can 
have no idea of colours, so we have no idea of the manner in 
which the all- wise God perceives and understands all things. 
He is utterly void of all body and bodily figure, and can, 
therefore, neither be seen nor heard, nor touched ; nor ought 
he to be worshiped under the representation of any corpo- 
real thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but what the real 
substance of any thing is, we know not. In bodies, we see 
only their figures and colours, we hear only the sounds, we 
touch only their outward surfaces, we smell only the odours, 
and taste the savours, but their inward substances are not 
to be known either by our senses, or by any reflex act of our 
minds ; much less, then, can we have any idea of the sub- 
stance of God. We know him only by his most wise and ex- 
cellent contrivances of all things, and final causes ; we ad- 
mire him for his perfections, but we reverence and adore him 
on account of his dominion ; and a God without dominion, pro- 
vidence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature." 

We recollect, upon the first perusal of this passage, to 
have experienced one of the most sublime sensations, that was 
ever excited in our minds, by the most magnificent imagery, 
with which the richest poetick fancy ever arrayed the Deity. It 
was a sublime, arising out of the results of reason. But, we 
produce this passage, in order to illustrate the idea upon 
which we ground our defence of the doctrine of a Trinity, 
against the allegations of Dr. C., to which we have just ad- 
verted. The very cases in which he descries difficulties, are 
those in which this great Philosopher decides, human reason 



73 



is incompetent to judge. The question here, upon which the 
controversy turns, is that of identity and diversity, which has 
perplexed the schools ever since the time in which it was 
broached among the Grecian Sages, and which, although after 
the very luminous elucidation of it, which has been given by 
Bishop Butler, it ought to be understood in theory, seems still 
to be involved in obscurity by some authors, who have un- 
dertaken to discuss it, without comprehending what that Pre- 
late had written. The difficulty is to determine in what same- 
ness or identity consists, or, in other words, what is the prin- 
cipium individuations, or principle of individuality, which 
discriminates every object in nature from all others. Mr. 
Locke, in a very entertaining disquisition upon the subject, 
while to a reader, who w ill take the pains nicely to follow the 
thread of his inquiry, he makes it extremely clear, from a sin- 
gular orcitancy of understanding, falls into an error himself, 
making identity to consist in consciousness, which is a single 
act of the mind, and one of the proofs to ourselves of our 
identity, but, of course, can no more constitute the identity 
of the person, than any other act, as imagination, perception, 
abstraction, or reasoning. If this doctrine were true, as Dr. 
Reid remarks, as soon as a man loses by disease, the consci- 
ousness of his past actions, (for that writer makes conscious- 
ness include an act of memory also,) he would no longer be 
the same Being. As w r e do not intend to indulge our specula- 
tions upon this abstruse subject, farther than is indispensable 
to the comprehension of the question before us for investiga- 
tion, we shall barely state the views of Bishop Butler, who, 
in our estimation, in a short disquisition, usually affixed to his 
" analogy," has precluded, or ought to preclude all future 
controversy about the matter. He remarks, that, when we 
make use of the terms identity and diversity, we intend to 
signify simple ideas, and, of course, they are terms, which, 
like those of similitude and equality, cannot be defined or ex- 
plained by any artifice of language, and, in fact, require no 
explanation, since they are perfectly intelligible to all persons., 
and are only obscured and perplexed by any attempt to de- 
line or explain them. Who can define the terms light, heat,, 
colour, similitude, equality, and yet all persons adequately 
understand them. The same observation applies to identity 
and diversity, every person understanding the terms, when 
we say that is the same man, tree, house, horse or ox, which 
we had known formerly, although years may have passed in 
the interval, and all these several objects have undergone 



79 



sensible and remarkable alterations, in figure, size, appear- 
ance, and improvement. Now, then, let us apply this obser- 
vation to the awful subject under discussion. Is there any 
thing alleged in the orthodox creed, concerning the three 
Persons in the adorable Unity, which shows that they cannot 
be the same substance or Being? The Dr. asserts that their 
different consciousnesses, perceptions, and volitions, show their 
diversity of substance. Now, let it be recollected, that, in this 
case, we are reasoning from the structure and operations of our 
own minds, to the structure and operations of the mind of Dei- 
ty, which Newton, with all Philosophers, condemns, except to 
a limited extent. " Much less, then, says he, can we have any 
idea of the substance of God." And again, "we can have no idea 
of the manner in which the all-wise God perceives and under- 
stands all things." We know him only by his most wise and ex- 
cellent contrivances of things, and final causes." Conscious- 
ness, perception, and willing, are inward acts of our minds, and 
probably similar operations are performed by the Divine 
Mind, and by these, with memory, the Deity knows himself 
to be the same Being at one period of duration as at another, 
but when we undertake to reason against the existence of 
Three Persons, in the same God-head, from the operations of 
our own minds, and conclude that those operations which de- 
note separate and individual subsistence in us, must denote 
the same in them, and imply that they have not the same 
substance, we are calculating without our host, and applying 
our principles to cases to which they do not legitimately ex- 
tend. The same observation applies to all the acts and pro- 
perties of the Persons in the Godhead. There is the greatest 
difficulty in the world, in ascertaining the archetype to that 
complex idea, which we annex to the term Person, or Hypos- 
tasis in the Godhead, and it is not, therefore, in our power to 
decide, how far those properties which are attributed to 
them, go to show their diversity, and whether they could be- 
long to Agents, all three of whom were substantially united, 
or whether the possession of those properties, and the per- 
formance of those acts, be reconcilable with the idea of their 
hypostatical union. The fact is, that orthodox Christians 
justly consider this subject entirely above reason, and a doc- 
trine resting solely upon revelation ; and, although they main- 
tain, that there is nothing contradictory to the conclusions of 
right reason contained in it, yet they do not expect, by any 
representations, to bring it down to the comprehension of hu- 
man understanding. They find in the New Testament, that 



30 



there are Three Divine Agents, represented as united in one 
substance, who are occupied in the works of creation, govern- 
ment, the redemption and salvation of mankind ; and they 
humbly receive this account, as deriving its origin from God, 
and as something superadded to the discoveries of their own 
reason. That there is one God, is that natural revelation, 
which, according to Locke, comes to us in the spontaneous 
exercise of our native faculties, from the Father of lights, 
and fountain of all wisdom ; while the fact that he exists in 
a Trinity of Persons, is that remote star discovered to the 
eye, through the instrumentality of the Telescope, of the ex- 
istence of which, however, the eye vouches the truth by a 
clear and distinct perception. And, let it not be said, that this 
is a subterfuge to escape from the force of right reason, and 
that we have before allowed, not only that reason is to judge 
of the evidence by which the revelation from Heaven is au- 
thenticated, but, also by it, we are to determine the truth of 
the doctrine itself, whether it be compatible with the charac- 
ter and attributes of God 3 and conformable to the suggestions 
of our own understandings. This is all very true, and, hi 
forming our decision, upon principles of sound reason, we 
must reflect upon the nature of the subject upon which is 
made the communication from Heaven, and see whether, and 
how far our reason is competent to decide about it. Now, we 
affirm, that this, above all others, is a case which is preemi- 
nently above reason, and, therefore, we ought to expect, that 
it will not be adequately comprehended. As when revelation 
informs us, that the same body will be raised, in a future 
state, adding the circumstance of the resurrection of the 
body, to the discovery which reason makes of the future ex- 
istence of the soul, it would not be a sufficient refutation, to 
endeavour to trace it to any absurdities; so it forms no insu- 
perable objection to the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in 
the Godhead, that we cannot reconcile it to the conclusions 
of reason. There are as many difficulties attending the belief 
of one God, as stated by Newton ; and atheists have thought 
these difficulties a sufficient justification of their impiety, in 
denying his existence. Now, suppose any one should reason 
in the following manner. What ! Assert that there is a Being, 
who has no cause of his existence, although himself the cause 
of all other things, who occupies all space, and yet is not ex- 
tended, who had no beginning of days, and can have no end 
of years, who is no older to-day, than he was at the Crea- 
tion, who is all eye, all ear, all brain, all power to perceive. 



81 



understand and to act, who is benevolence itself, and possesses 
infinite power, and yet allows the existence of evil, moral and 
physical, and who wills the happiness of his creatures, and 
yet permits them to be wretched I Would not these objec- 
tions be much more formidable to the existence of God, than 
those of Dr. C. against the doctrine of a Trinity 1 With but 
a small share of eloquence, the evils of the natural and mo- 
ral world might be so strongly exasperated, as to make the 
faith of the most confirmed Theist totter, did he not thorough- 
ly understand the utter futility and folly of reposing any con- 
fidence in arguments of this nature, applying to a state of 
things with which we are so imperfectly acquainted. God 
and the structure of the universe, are objects about which 
we should be extremely cautious in reasoning, because they 
are too vast for the grasp of our feeble understandings. 

And here let it not be said, that we deny the jurisdiction of 
reason, in this case, because it makes against us, whilst we 
are glad to avail ourselves of its authority, whenever it ope- 
rates to our advantage. Let it be distinctly noticed, that we 
refuse submission to its decisions, only in those cases which 
are, from their very nature, such matters as could not be safe- 
ly left at its disposal. This forms the distinction between the 
ground which we assume, in reference to this subject, and the 
conduct of the Roman Catholick, who undertakes to shelter 
under the same plea, his monstrous doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation, where the mode of argument does not apply, inas- 
much as that comes under the immediate cognizance of the 
senses, and, in regard to which, it would be absurd to main- 
tain, that reason is incapable of deciding. This view of the 
subject, will, we trust, make perceptible to Divines, the pro- 
per use of reason, and at what point its abuse commences, and 
preserve them from the folly, into which some have undoubt- 
edly fallen, of decrying the use of reason in matters of reve- 
lation, as if, when properly exerted, it would not, in all cases 
whatever, contribute to the discovery of truth. It cannot be, 
that, when legitimately employed, it should be at contrariety 
to God's revealed will, for this would be to suppose, that God, 
in his word, contradicts what he has declared in his works, 
and his supernatural revelation is put at variance with his 
natural. And is there not a great satisfaction to the inquiring 
and ingenuous mind, in finding that God's works are always 
in harmony with his word ? As far as the researches of the 
learned and scientifick have hitherto extended the parallel, 
as Lord Bacon remarks, there has been discovered a wonder - 
11 



82 



ful correspondence between them; and, it is not a little re- 
markable, that, wherever a mysterious subject is to be traced 
in Christian doctrine, there is a correspondent mystery in na- 
tural religion ; as of a Trinity and a God, of the resurrection 
of the body, and the future existence of the soul. But, says 
Dr. C. " This doctrine, were it true, must, from its difficul- 
ty, singularity, and importance, have been laidjdown with 
great clearness, guarded with great care, and stated with all 
possible precision." How unbecoming and presumptuous, is 
such a mode of reasoning, from creatures so short-sighted as 
we are, when' applied to the proceedings of an infinite mind ! 
Would it not be as solid an argument to assert, that since the 
Almighty must have foreseen all the altercation, violence and 
bloodshed, which the discussion of this subject has occasion- 
ed, if the Bible was his word, he would have prevented 
these mischiefs, by a clear, full, and satisfactory explication 
of the subject ? The ways of God are not as our ways, nor 
his thoughts as our thoughts; and it need not, therefore, be 
surprising, if his nature and substance be not consistent with 
our conceptions. We can readily conceive a wise reason, why 
neither the Saviour nor his Apostles, were very ready or 
eager, in bringing forward and explaining this doctrine, as it 
is too abstract a subject for the people easily to comprehend, 
and might have been construed by the Gentiles in favour of 
their idolatry, and, by the Jews, might have been abhorred as 
a system of Tritheism. It was best, under these circumstan- 
ces, to wait for the proper opportunity to have it fully unfold- 
ed, at a time in the history of the church, when it could not 
be misunderstood or perverted. " But, the Dr. says, he is asto- 
nished, that any man can read the New Testament, and avoid 
the conviction, that the Father alone is God." We, on the 
other hand, would think it impossible, upon reading the New 
Testament, that any man could avoid perceiving, that Christ 
was more than mere man, and even a Divine Being. Again, 
says the Dr., " That a doctrine so strange, so liable to mis- 
apprehension, so fundamental as this is said to be, and requir- 
ing such careful exposition, should be left so undefined and 
unprotected, to be made out by inference, and to be hunted 
through distant and detached parts of scripture, this is a diffi- 
culty, which we think no ingenuity can explain." We have 
already stated what we conceive to be a sufficient reason, for 
this cautious and gradual disclosure of the doctrine of a Tri- 
nity. But, in order to display the utter inadmissibility of the 
mode of reasoning here instituted, suppose Epicurus or Demo- 



83 



critus, to have lived in the time of Cicero, and, in discussing 
with him the subject of the being of a God, when the Roman 
orator referred to those instances of wise contrivance in na- 
ture, indicating a contriver, which are stated in his treatise 
concerning the nature of the gods, they had endeavoured to 
invalidate their force, by the argument of Dr. C. : " That a 
doctrine so strange, so liable to misapprehension, (as was 
shown by the polytheism of the vulgar, and the sceptical 
doubts of the wise,) so fundamental as this is said to be, should 
be left so undefined and unprotected, to be made out by in- 
ference, and to be hunted through distant and detached parts 
of nature, is a difficulty which we think no ingenuity can ex- 
plain." The argument is as good in the one case, as in the 
other ; and man might have had this great truth, as well as 
that of a future existence, either written upon his forehead, or 
upon his heart in such legible characters, as could be easily de- 
ciphered. We beg our readers to carry this solution with them, 
in reading much that the Dr. has written upon this subject. 
"But, says he, we have anotherdifficulty. Christianity, it must 
be remembered, was planted and grew up amidst sharp-sighted 
enemies, who overlooked no objectionable part of the system 5 
and who must have fastened with great earnestness upon a 
doctrine involving such apparent contradictions, as the Tri- 
nity. Now, how happens it, that, in the Apostolick writings, 
which relate so much to the objections against Christianity, 
and to the controversies which grew out of the religion, not 
one w T ord is said, implying that objections were brought 
against the gospel, from the doctrine of the Trinity, not one 
word in its defence and explanation, not a word to rescue it 
from reproach and mistake?" Thus the same mode of arguing 
is still pursued, which is the most feeble, uncertain, and falli- 
ble of all others. If things were in such and such circum- 
stances, why did not certain specified results follow? If the 
miracles of Christ were so publickly performed, and were 
such stupendous violations of the laws of nature, why were 
not the whole Jewish Nation convinced at once of his extra- 
ordinary pretensions? If Moses really achieved the wonders 
in Egypt, which are ascribed to him, and afterwards passed 
miraculously through the Red Sea, how could the Hebrews 
ever afterwards have doubted his divine commission, or mur- 
mured against his authority ? These are questions which may 
be multiplied without end, and an ordinary mind may ask as 
many of them, in a few moments, as would take a man of first 
rate learning and capacity, some months to answer, But. let 



84 



us see if this one, from a writer of first rate learning and ca- 
pacity, may not be answered by a very ordinary mind, in a 
satisfactory manner. If the Apostles propounded such a 
strange and absurd dogma as a Trinity, why do we not hear 
something relating to it in their writings, considering they 
had such sharp-sighted enemies to carp at any thing objec- 
tionable in their system." We might here avail ourselves of 
the argumentum ad hominem, and allege, that, possibly, this 
was one of those points in which Christianity was intended 
to be progressive ; and, considering the people whom they 
addressed, the tendency of the Gentiles, to make it minister 
to their idolatry, and the Jews to construe it into Polythe- 
ism, the time of its full disclosure had not arrived. Who knows 
but the promulgers of Christianity, may have proceeded up- 
on the principles on which the initiated were conducted 
through the Eleusinian mysteries, when the sublime dogma 
of the Unity, was reserved as the last and. ultimate disclo- 
sure to the aspirant. Would this argument of his own inven- 
tion, be suited to the taste of Dr. C. ? We might even allow 
additional force to it, in this early age, previous to the for- 
mation of the canon of holy scripture, as it is indubitable 
that Christ and his Apostles, as well as primitive Christians, 
as far as they could do so, in accordance with their regard to 
necessary truth, did accommodate themselves to the predomi- 
nant opinions and manners of the people whom they address- 
ed. St. Paul allows of an innocent compromise of this na- 
ture, by becoming all things to all men, so that by this means 
lie might win some. We see, then, that this sublime doctrine 
might, at first, have been kept, in a degree, in the back ground, 
for good reasons, while the Divinity and mission of Christ 
were sufficiently understood, without entangling the minds of 
the people with such abstruse speculations. Sometimes, how- 
ever, we know they do refer to it, and in express terms, for we 
are not among the number of those who are satisfied, that 
the passage of scripture, referring to the three witnesses, is 
an interpolation ; notwithstanding a Newton, and those who 
have treated it more ably than"New T ton, have relinquished 
their canonical hold upon it. If it seem like an argument con- 
clusive against its authenticity and genuineness, on the one 
hand, that it uus never once quoted during the Arian contro- 
versy, is it not a counterbalancing consideration, equally 
weighty, that, when the controversy was renewed and con- 
tinued in the Church, by the two opposing parties, after the 
Council of Nice, it was not denied to be a sound and pure 



85 



portion of the sacred text ? But, not unnecessarily to consume 
time, at present, in this controversy. The Apostles may not 
have thought it advisable, at that time, to insist largely upon 
this mystery, as the genius of the age did not lead to the 
broaching of such speculations, for we know, that, in differ- 
ent ages, different tendencies of the human mind are percep- 
tible; they may have deemed it inexpedient, under existing 
circumstances, to bring forward a topick of this nature, ex- 
cept so far as duty required of them. These observations are 
made upon the presumption, that it was not frequently refer- 
red to by the Apostles. But the probability is, that they made 
it as prominent a feature in their scheme of doctrine, as the 
nature of the case required; for, even at this day, it forms 
but a small portion of the annual course of instruction con- 
ducted in the pulpit. Dr. C, in his argument, all along pro- 
ceeds upon the presumption, that the promulgation of it, at 
that time, would have given rise to great outcry and clamor- 
ous invectives against it. " We are persuaded, says he, that 
had three Divine Persons been announced by the first Preach- 
ers of Christianity, all equal and all infinite, one of them was 
the very Jesus, who had lately died upon the cross, this pecu- 
liarity of Christianity, would almost have absorbed every 
other, and the great labour of the Apostles would have been, 
to repel the continued assaults which it would have awaken- 
ed." In this statement, the Dr. allows his present feelings to 
render him blind to the lessons which his learning would have 
taught him, and demonstrates how natural it is for us to ima- 
gine, that a subject which is deeply interesting to us, must 
be equalty so to every other person. A slight recurrence to the 
history of the world, would have brought to his recollection the 
undoubted fact, that, however enlightened and highly culti- 
vated minds, after they have been instructed in the truths of 
Christianity, and imbibed all that knowledge which is now 
circulating in the world, may feel themselves excited by hear- 
ing of three Divine Persons, or say Gods, united in one sub- 
stance; yet, this would have been very far from the result, 
before the promulgation of Christianity. The Jews, for the 
most part, although at seasons, strangely prone to symbolize 
with the Pagans, adhered steadily to the Unity; but they were 
accustomed to see every kind of God worshipped by other 
Nations, and the representation of any three of these, as unit- 
ed in one nature, or outwardly exhibited in one body, how- 
ever it might strike us, would have produced little effect up- 
on them. Does not every scholar know, that the Phenicians, 



86 



Egyptians, Chaldseans, Hindoos, and almost all ancient na- 
tions, had, if not strictly speaking, their Trinities, something 
nearly approaching to them, and that even Plato appears to 
hint at the same tenet? Dr. Allix thinks, too, that traces of it 
are to be found among the Jews and Rabbins. Now, although 
we have never been convinced, that any thing more could be 
made out of these representations, among the different na- 
tions, but dim and unsatisfactory allusions to this doctrine, 
yet we have not the least doubt, that all the noise which the 
promulgation of this dogma would have made, was what is 
mentioned as having taken place at Athens, when Paul preach- 
ed to that people Jesus and the resurrection; and that is, the 
cry that they were setters forth of strange gods. It has taken 
mankind a long time, even with the aid of revelation, to obtain 
very refined ideas about God, his government, and a future 
state. In reading the works of Cicero, who, taking him alto- 
together, is the greatest man of antiquity, of whom the Hea- 
then world could boast, we were truly surprised to find how 
very ignorant he seems to be about the unity of God, and of the 
proofs which demonstrate it. We suppose this ignorance of 
the one God, to have arisen from the universal prevalence of 
idolatry, which led Philosophers to avoid giving offence to 
the vulgar, and impairing the force of religion upon their 
minds, by free speculations upon the subject. It does appear 
to us, therefore, that the Dr. overcharges w ith colouring, the 
picture he has drawn, of the effect which would have been 
produced among the hearers of the Apostles, if they had in- 
sisted upon the doctrine of a Trinity. They were naturally 
led, however, at that period, to dwell in preference, upon 
what was the supreme object of attention, the character and 
divine mission of Christ, and all those interesting topicks con- 
nected with it. They proceeded precisely as our missionaries 
do at this time, who carry the Gospel to Heathen Nations f 
and who, it is presumed, while insisting upon the claims of a 
Saviour, would seldom feel themselves justified by the circum- 
stances of the case, and among a people unacquainted with 
the elements of the faith, in plunging at once into the sub- 
lime and incomprehensible mystery of a Trinity. 



87 



DISSERTATION XII. 



€reditis in Deum, credite etiam in me. — xiv. John, and 1st verse, 



Passing from the abstract consideration of the subject of 
the Trinity, in which our adversaries have the same kind of 
advantage, in assaulting this great mystery of our faith, which 
the Atheist has, when he undertakes to unsettle the convic- 
tion of the Theist, that there exists a Divine Being, by multi- 
plying and exaggerating the difficulties which embarrass that 
truth, we proceed to the consideration of the practical results 
of this doctrine. The Dr. has certainly made some wonderful 
discoveries upon this subject, for which, it is to be expected, 
he will receive all merited honours. The observations he 
makes upon this subject, appear to us to have the merit of 
originality, although we are afraid that they will be found, 
when tested, deficient in that single recommendation, which 
is the crowning quality of good writing ; and this deficiency, 
like an evil star, seems to hang over the pages of the theologi- 
cal portions of this work, and that is, verity, or justness of con- 
ception, and accuracy of thought. " The Trinity sets before 
us, says he, three distinct objects of supreme adoration, and is 
unfavourable to devotion, by distracting the mind in its com- 
munion with God." Never was there an objection more un- 
founded than this, as the experience of every Trinitarian can 
testify. The idea of three distinct beings, or objects of adora- 
tion, never enters his mind, during the moments of devout 
communion with God, and, we must be allowed to say, that 
we do not believe there ever was that man upon Earth, who 
became a Unitarian, in order that he might enjoy a purer, 
more chastened, and unmixed devotion. The corrupt passions 
of the heart, first quarrel with the rigor of Christian disci- 
pline, and the restraints' which are thrown upon them by 
Christian doctrine, and, then, the head finds an excuse for 
the license of the life, in the discovery that the worship cf a 
Triune God, is more distracting to the mind, and breaks down 
and scatters the devotional feelings, by their division among 
a multitude of objects. Really this is quite a new metaphys- 
ics, to discover that an object has less unity, because of its 
greater complexity, and should confer immortality upon its 



88 



inventor, were it not for the unfortunate quality which- again 
vitiates this, as it has so frequently been found to do, the 
original ideas and sayings of this author, that it has not its 
foundation in truth and nature, is not sound philosophy. Now, 
our philosophy, which is, indeed, of the old school of Locke 
and Aristotle, and, of course, is a system into which the whole 
web of Christianity, without any unravelling of its texture, 
or violence to the woof, is interwoven, informs us, that an ob- 
ject does not lose any of its unity, by becoming more com- 
plex. Man or horse, are as much one, as light or heat, a house, 
with a wing on each side, as a pillar, the earth, as a moun- 
tain, the universe as the sun. Do we not worship God, as the 
great spirit pervading the universe, and as truly one spirit, 
as any Unitarian can do? By giving him three 'Persons, we 
only present him to the mind's eye, under two more interest- 
ing aspects, and enable ourselves, while in audience with the 
Deity, to find more points of contact with the object of our 
adoration, and, of course, the more ardently to engage in the 
sacred effusions of our pious sensibilities. The Deity, therefore, 
by being regarded as the Redeemer and Sanctifier, as well as 
Eternal Father of the pious spirit, only presents himself to 
him, as clothed in more attractive garbs, and as more su- 
premely worthy of his highest and most unbounded homage. 
Under this impression, there comes from Him to the soul, a 
more full and refulgent glory, and a more enlivening and 
quickening influence. The pious spirit has not only to recog- 
nize Him as a Parent, and return him gratitude and affec- 
tion, for the manifold and tender mercies of his providence, 
but he is smitten with a deep and pungent sense of his depra- 
vity and guilt, afflicted with a godly sorrow for them, and in- 
finitely indebted to him, for the relief which he has afforded 
from their burden, and the price he has paid for his salvation. 
Now, who among the worshippers of God, will have the most 
lively feelings awakened, he who is conscious that more has 
been achieved for him, or he who is conscious of less? And, 
can it be conceived, that there is any distraction of mind aris- 
ing out of the circumstance of the presentation of three Per- 
sons in one substance ? It is certain, that the mind must be 
egregriously feeble, who is sensible of any distraction from 
this source. Besides, if the devout worshipper chooses, can he 
not direct his attention to any single Person of the Godhead, 
excluding from his conceptions the other two? We do not 
believe that the advantage stated by Dr. C, would not have 
been enjoyed, in its fullest extent, even by the Pagan, who 



89 



could address Jupiter, Apollo, or Diana, as separate Divini- 
ties. This, therefore, if it be a benefit, is such an one as the 
heathens enjoyed, in as high degree as the Unitarian, and we 
do not find that his ideas of the Divinity were remarkably 
purified and refined. And so far are the conceptions enter- 
tained by the orthodox of Almighty God, from depriving the 
worshipper of his father in Heaven* in any portion of the full 
force of his Paternal character, that they awake tenfold ten- 
derness, arising out of that relation which God bears to him, 
not only as his Parent, in the sense hi which he may be 
said to' be the author of every created thing, but in a 
sense that reaches the very- bottom of the heart and causes 
every fibre of sensibility within it to vibrate with emotion, 
that of not having spared his well-beloved Son but sent 
him from his bosom to make propitiation for sin. Instead 
of taking from us our Father in Heaven, as the Dr. so pa- 
thetically laments, the orthodox creed presents him to the 
pious Spirit with augmented claims, under more endearing ti- 
tles, and clad in images of more touching tenderness as a Pa- 
rent. But we are told, that this which we have stated as so 
important an advantage in the orthodox creed, is the very 
circumstance which forms a ground of objection, since it in- 
jures devotion, not only by joining with the Father other ob- 
jects of worship, but by taking from the Father that supreme 
affection which is his due and transferring it to the Son." 
There is here represented such a balancing of accounts be- 
tween the debtor and creditor, such a barter of homage be- 
tween the worshipper and the object of his adoration, that 
one would suppose he was transacting business in the count- 
ing-house, or the market, instead of offering up the unrestrain- 
ed affections of the soul, to the great God of the Universe. 
The orthodox christian feels, and realizes the fact, that when 
he is paying his adoration to one Person of the Ever-blessed 
Trinity, he is paying his adorations to the adorable Three. 
He never thinks of separating them even in imagination, as 
he knows that they are one in nature. You are attached to 
a Father from natural affection, and that Father afterwards 
becomes your benefactor, by saving your life when it was in 
imminent danger. You now contemplate him under new im- 
ages of tenderness, and are more supremely devoted to him 
than ever. Must you rob the Father of that filial affection 
which you owe him, because you now honour him under the 
new relation of a benefactor? This explains the homage of 
the pious soul to his God, under the endearing recollection, 



90 



that, in his capacity of Mediator, he has suffered and died for 
his salvation. The heart waits not to count the comparative 
share of homage which is due to the One Person of the 
God-head, and the other, but pours out its most ardent and 
unrestrained affection, in one full, united and overflowing 
stream to the One Supreme and undivided Divinity. But, 
says the Dr. again. " That Jesus Christ, if exalted into the 
infinite Divinity, should be more interesting than the Father, 
is precisely what might be expected from history, and from 
the principles of human nature. " This objection we answer 
in his own infallible words, " Jesus Christ and the Father are 
One, and they that honour him, honour the Father also." To 
alter the phraseology, therefore, so as to make it conformed to 
truth ; let the sentiment be conveyed in these terms : That 
mankind will feel themselves more interested with the Deity, 
and pay him a more willing and fervent adoration, when they 
are under the impression that he has condescended to take 
their nature upon him and make an atonement for their sins, 
in his own body on the tree, is what might be expected from 
history, and from the principles of human nature. And allow 
me to assure the Dr. that this consideration, instead of pre- 
senting a presumption against the doctrine of the incarnation , 
will to the eye of the true philosopher, of him who is capable 
of viewing the works of the Creator upon a liberal and ex- 
tended scale, present one of the strongest and most conclusive 
arguments in its favour. For, was it not the same Being, who 
became incarnate, that performed the task of constituting 
human nature ? And can you suppose, that he pointed to 
nothing, had no end in view, when he communicated to all na- 
tions, that strong tendency to embody their Divinity, and to 
offer sacrifices, and bloody sacrifices too, to expiate their sins ? 
We ought to reverence this tendency of our nature, instead 
of treating it with the levity of infidels and scepticks, and re- 
gard it as a kind of premonition to us, a hand-writing upon 
the walls of these earthly houses, as significant as the voice 
which came from Heaven, at the transfiguration of the Sa- 
viour, denoting that this was the beloved Son of God, in 
whom he was pleased-— Ah ! dreadful will be the fate of those 
who sedulously strive to depreciate the character, and lower, 
if not entirely vacate the pretensions of Him, whom God has 
so pre-eminently delighted to honour. This matter, however, 
it naturally becomes our province to unfold, when we enter 
upon the consideration of the doctrine of the incarnation and 
atonement 



91 



DISSERTATION XIII. 



Pessima res est errorum apotheosis, et pro peste intellectus habenda est, si 
¥anis accedat veneratia — Bacon. 

The next doctrine assailed by Dr. C, is that of the Divini- 
ty, of Christ; in which attack upon the faith, he repeats what 
infidels have so often alleged, and Divines so often confuted. 
These cavils are, however, brought forward with as great an 
air of confidence, and supported with as much vehemence and 
apparent sincerity, as if they had never before been heard. Let 
us hasten through them as rapidly, as is consistent with a 
complete refutation, that we may not weary the patience of 
readers, with subjects so extremely thread-bare. " Accord- 
ing to this doctrine, says he, Jesus Christ, instead of be- 
ing one mind, one conscious intelligent principle, whom 
we can understand, consists of two souls, two minds the 
one divine, the other human, the one weak, the other Al- 
mighty, the one ignorant, the other omniscient ; now, we 
maintain, this is to make Christ two beings/' Nothing can be 
more easy, simple and satisfactory, than the answer to all this 
display of dialectick skill, and yet it would appear as if it 
were deemed utterly unanswerable. He thinks that one Per- 
son cannot be made up of two Minds, infinitely different from 
each other. And, pray why not ? How, then, can one inan 
be composed of two distinct principles, a soul and body^ 
which seem to be more diametrically opposed to each other, 
in their properties, than the Divine and human mind ? Can 
he ascertain those mysterious ties which unite the body and 
soul, and enable them to sympathize with each other, and to 
communicate action from the one to the other ? Is there the 
least difficulty in conceiving, that the Deity may unite him- 
self with this compound substance, to what extent he shall 
think proper, and in what measure soever, that may be com- 
mensurate with the purpose by which he is actuated ? But, 
we are told, " that, to denominate him one Person, one Being, 
and yet suppose him made up of two minds, infinitely different 
from each other, is to abuse and confound language, and to 
throw darkness over all our conceptions of intelligent na- 



92 



tures." Why would it be to confound language, to say, that, 
to some human body, God has added a human soul, and, with 
that, has connected another soul, or principle, and formed a 
Being of a peculiar kind ? Would he not, when thus more 
compounded, still be as much one Person as he was before, 
and, moreover, as easily conceived of, as the product of di- 
vine skill, as he was, when merely a human creature ? Every 
one allows, that the Supreme God exists every where, and is 
present at all times to the souls of men, and can operate up- 
on them at his pleasure. Could he not, then, transfuse into 
the Person of Christ, at his pleasure, all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily, and render him partaker of his glory, and 
the express image of his person 1 To God there would be no 
greater difficulty in effectuating this change, than there was 
in exhibiting himself visibly to Moses in the burning bush, 
or to the Jews upon Mount Sinai, or in that emblem of his 
majesty, which the Shekinah displayed in the Holy of Holies. 
No one, in his senses, can doubt that the Almighty can form 
such a Being as a God-man, by a union of the Divine and hu- 
man nature ; and the simple question to be decided, to con- 
vince us that be did so, is, whether Christ has furnished suf- 
ficient proofs of his Divinity, in his works. " If ye believe 
not me, says the Saviour, believe me for my work's sake." If 
his works and words prove him Divine, he must have united 
the human and divine natures, and that too, without any 
blending or confusion of them, unless we are willing to allow 
the absurdity, that his Divine nature suffered upon the cross. 
The doctrine which the orthodox hold upon this subject, 
comes to them, after having been winnowed from all the chaff 
of error, by the discussions and the wisdom of ages; and, one 
would think, that it is now time the truth should be allowed 
to enjoy an unmolested reign, after undergoing a victorious 
campaign of centuries of warfare. But, such is the nature of 
the human mind, that it is never contented with the lot which 
Providence has assigned it, however vacant of ills, or replete 
with blessings. What would not the witnesses to the truth, 
in the days of papal terror and tyranny, have given to enjoy, 
in peace and comfort, that system of faith and practice, which 
some of us seem disposed to treat with so much slighting, dis- 
paragement, and contempt? Let such persons know, how- 
ever, that they are not the first holding the Christian name, 
who have disturbed the Church with these errors, and sub- 
verted her peace, in their propagation; but, in the fate of their 
prototypes, in the ancient world, they find their own record- 



93 



ed, in terms that should make their hearts quake, and then 
knees to tremble; These tenets have already been weighed in 
the balance of the sanctuary, and are found wanting. Man- 
kind may be misled, for a time, and carried away from the 
faith by strong delusions, but, in the issue, nature and truth 
shall resume their rights, and they will find the awful sen- 
tence in full force against them, your reign is ended — your 
kingdom is taken from you, and transferred to others ; and all 
the kingdoms of this world, shall become the kingdoms of our 
Lord, and his Christ. 

We should here willingly close our reflections upon this 
topick, and leave our fellow citizens to form their own opin- 
ions upon the controversy, but there are some further consid- 
erations offered by Dr. C. which are so plausible and decep- 
tive, that we are propelled by an imperious sense of duty, to 
offer some additional explanations of our creed. Nothing 
would seem to be more simple, than that the Deity could, if 
he chose, manifest himself to mankind in human flesh, and 
that the purpose said to be accomplished by the incarnation 
of Christ, presented a motive sufficient to the great underta- 
king. Some philosophers, we know, even imagine that the 
Deity is always immediately acting throughout the Universe, 
and produces by that agency all the results which we behold, 
and this doctrine, although clogged with insuperable difficul- 
ties, at all events, shows with what facility, in the opinion of 
mankind, God may make himself known by his power and 
exhibit his awful presence in any part of the system. Dr. C. 
should more attentively have read, and more carefully have 
studied the writings of philosophers, before he hazarded serae 
of his observations in this part of his work. In this event, 
we think, he would not have imagined it so " enormous a tax" 
upon human credulity to believe that the Divine and human 
nature were united in the person of our Blessed Saviour. He 
professes to believe in the prophecies of the old and new Tes- 
tament, in the performance of miracles, in Christ's resurrec- 
tion, and in the future resurrection of mankind ; and these 
things are as difficult to be believed as the union of the Di- 
vine and human nature in Christ. Why should he here stop 
at the half-way house to infidelity, and not proceed on his 
journey until he reaches the home of this malignant power ? 
Suppose we should ask, how can a spirit of prophecy be con- 
veyed from God to man, or the power of miracles, or how 
could Christ and his followers be raised from the dead, would 
not these be found as incomprehensible mysteries as the uni~ 



94 



on of two natures in the Saviour 1 But the Dr. seems to think 
that he has already triumphed, when he states the question in 
the following terms. " Jesus, in his preaching continually 
spoke of God. The word was always in his mouth. We ask, 
does he by this word, ever mean himself?" We are afraid, 
that in order to answer this query, in a manner entirely sat- 
isfactory, we should be compelled to have recourse to the Di- 
vine Speaker himself, as it is not always easy or possible to 
determine, with accuracy, what meaning another Person may 
annex to his expressions. We might, very innocently, make 
more or less of them than was intended by the Speaker. But, 
inasmuch as we can easily perceive, that it would have 
been the height of folly in the Saviour, situated as he was, 
to have gone about Judea proclaiming boldly, and without 
reserve, his own divinity, which it required the labours of his 
miraculous life to substantiate, and as he certainly did, on 
some occasions, give such unequivocal intimations of his Di- 
vine nature, that he awoke the jealousy of the Jewish people, 
w ho accused him of blasphemy, and threatened to inflict upon 
him the penalty annexed in their law to that crime, which 
w as stoning to death ; we need furnish no other answer to 
this objection against this article of our faith. To have spoken 
more explicitly upon this topick, would have been to defeat 
at once his own ministry, and supersede the execution of his 
plan of salvation. Besides, it would not have been true, to de- 
clare that he as man, was the Supreme God, and, in order to 
make the doctrine intelligible, he must have entered into fine- 
spun speculations upon the Trinity, which his hearers would 
have regarded as a subject rather of merriment and scorn, 
than of serious consideration. Christ, therefore, and hisApos- 
tles, too, acted upon this subject with that profound wisdom 
and foresight, which proved that they' were worthy of the 
commission which they bore, and the honours which were 
conferred upon them. The Dr. again says, " According to 
the common doctrine, each of these two minds in Christ, has 
its own consciousness, its own will, its own perceptions. They 
have in fact no common properties. The Divine mind feels 
none of the wants and sorrows of the human, and the human 
is infinitely removed from the perfection and happiness of the 
Divine. Can we conceive of two beings in the universe, more 
distinct ? We have always thought, that one person was con- 
stituted and distinguished by one consciousness." Then we 
have simply to inform him, that he has always thought direct- 
ly wrong, and refer him to what we before said of persona! 



95 



identity, and to the treatise of Bishop Butler, to disclose to 
him his mistake, not forgetting to remind him that if he had 
drunk a little more deeply at the fountains which have been 
opened to him, by the profound metaphysicians of England, 
he might have been saved the trouble of writing, and we of 
answering a very great proportion of these tracts. The iden- 
tity of Christ and no other Being, is determined, either by 
his consciousness, or perceptions, or will, or wants, or happi- 
ness, or sorrows, or any such thing, but is an idea distinct 
from all, and his identity would have remained, if he had lost 
all consciousness at one moment, of what he was the preced- 
ing, and if his wills, his perceptions, his happiness or misery, 
had been shifted every hour of his life. While he retained the 
same form of body, and had the same mind, and the same 
Divine nature united to them, he was to all intents and pur- 
poses, the same Being, however variegated, discrepant and 
even opposite, may have been the phenomena exhibited by 
his mind — And as to his being one individual, the same obser- 
vation applies, as a God-man is as much one being as a man, 
the only difference consisting in the addition of one more in- 
gredient to the compound, that of the Divine Nature. The 
more the Dr. reflects upon this subject, the more clearly will 
he perceive, that these things have been well digested and 
completely understood, by those profound heads, who have 
transmitted to us our articles of faith ; and while, in the van- 
ity of our own minds, we may imagine ourselves wiser than 
they, and that we have detected flaws and deficiencies in 
their wwks, we shall find, upon a more ample survey, and 
closer scrutiny, that our difficulties and objections arise out of 
our own want of penetration and complete comprehension of 
the whole subject. 

Again, the Dr. proceeds in his objections to this doctrine. 
The emotions of Trinitarians, he says, at the sufferings of 
Christ, are founded on a misrepresentation of their own doc- 
trines. They profess to be touched and overwhelmed with the 
amazing humiliation of this Being. But this Second Person, 
being the infinite and unchangeable God, was evidently inca- 
pable of parting with the least degree of his felicity. Does not 
their doctrine, then, reduce Christ's humiliation and death to 
a fiction, and destroy the impression with which his cross 
ought to be viewed? Whilst hanging on the cross, he was the 
happiest Being in the universe, as happy as the Infinite Fa- 
ther." These views of the orthodox doctrine, he thinks, 
weaken our sympathy with the sufferings of Christ, and re- 



96 



commend the principles of Unitarians, to whom his crucifixion 
was a scene of " deep and unmixed agony." At first view of 
this statement, we are astonished to find, that, by any magi- 
cal process of reasoning, or any attempt at argument, it can 
be made out, that the Unitarian, who regards Christ as a mere 
man, invested with divine authority, should regard " His suf- 
ferings with greater sympathy," or contemplate his " cruci- 
fixion as a scene of more unmixed agony," than Trinitarians, 
who, besides acknowledging all that Unitarians admit, in re- 
ference to Christ's missson and humiliation, believe him also 
to be a Divine Being. Now, we should suppose, that the con- 
nection of his Divine with the human nature, must have 
transfused into the latter part of his composition a larger 
share of tenderness and sensibility, than it would have pos- 
sessed, independently of this incorporation; and, also, that 
this greater dignity would awake in our bosom a deeper in- 
terest in his behalf, than we should have felt without it. But, 
" since the Divine nature in Christ could not suffer, he must 
have been the happiest Being in the universe, when extended 
upon the cross, even as happy as the Father himself." This 
is a strange conclusion, and certainly deduced without suffi- 
cient premises to sustain it, since, all that can justly be infer- 
red in this case, is, that his Divine nature was as happy as the 
Father. But Christ is a Being, composed both of a human 
and Divine nature, and, therefore, before it can be said that 
He was as happy as the Father, at the crucifixion, it must be 
shown, that his human nature also was infinitely happy. By 
the same method of reasoning, it might be shown, that he was 
never born, never suffered or died, for, it is certain, that his 
Divine nature never underwent these vicissitudes. It is some- 
times said of the martyr at the stake, that, while his body is 
consumed by the flames, his soul is in rapture with the de- 
lightful prospect of an hereafter, let down into it as a beam 
from Heaven, but few would maintain, on this account, that 
tile martyr's sufferings were a fiction, or ought to diminish, 
our sympathy for him. So, in like manner, Christ being com- 
posed of a Divine and human nature, suffered for our sins in 
his human nature, the Divine being impassible, while the va- 
lue of the suffering was greatly, and even infinitely increased, 
by the dignity of the victim. It is certain, that there is no 
reason to believe, that the Divine nature abated, in any de- 
gree, the sufferings of the human, but rather, if any thing, 
from the very result of the connection, contributed to multi- 
ply and exacerbate them. And, undoubtedly, it is true, that 



97 



the Supreme Divinity of our Lord, by greatly exalting him in 
our estimation, must tend to augment the interest which we 
take in the crucifixion, and deeply impress upon our mind 
the guilt of sin, the awful nature of the penalty annexed to 
it, and the amazing love of God, which could induce him to 
expose his only Son to such humiliations and sufferings, to 
make an adequate atonement for it, 



DISSERTATION XIV. 



La passion neme que nous avons pour la verite nous trompe quelque fois 
Jorq'elle est trop ardente. Mais le desir de paroitre savant est ce que nous 
empecJie le plus d'acquirir une science veritable. — Mallebranche. 



The next part of the sermon of Dr. C, which comes Un- 
der our consideration, is that in which he treats of the moral 
perfection of God. While he asserts, that, upon this subject, 
for the most part, all Christians agree in sentiment, yet, it is 
somewhat unfortunate, that he can meet with no topick what- 
ever, upon which his predecessors had formed opinions alto- 
gether correct. It is wonderful that those illustrious men, who 
have appeared in the Church, from the times of Christ and 
his Apostles, should have been groping in the dark, during 
such a long tract of ages, and that the truth should have now 
been disclosed to the mind of one writer, in a remote quarter 
of the Globe, and of one, too, whose opportunities of learn- 
ing have been so much more slender, than those which have 
been enjoyed by many of the most distinguished minds that 
were ever formed. It is possible, however, that it may be so ? 
and the truth can never come too late, nor be diminished in 
value, although, like a gem, it might be picked up in the wil- 
derness. The Dr.'s next complaint against the orthodox, is, 
that they give a false idea of God. " It is very possible to 
speak of God magnificently, and to think of him meanly ; to 
apply to his person high-sounding epithets, and, to his go- 
vernment, principles which make him odious. The Heathens 
called Jupiter the greatest and the best, but his history was 
black with cruelty and lust. We conceive that Christians 



93 



have leaned towards a very injurious view of the Supreme 
Being." What the Dr. pours forth, in such gorgeous profu- 
sion, upon this subject, is a tolerably faithful transcript of Lord 
Bolingbroke's intemperate effusions upon the same topicks. 
In inveighing against what he deems the errors of Calvinism, 
he would attack Christianity in its vital parts, and release 
mankind from the most powerful restraints from vice. While 
we certainly do not approve of some of the opinions included 
under that system, usually denominated Calvinistick, as hav- 
ing never thought them sufficiently supported either by rea- 
son, or the sacred scriptures, yet we view them with senti- 
ments far different from those which are excited by the prin- 
ciples with which we are now contending. The Calvinistick 
scheme, defective as we deem it, is a great, coherent and ma- 
jestick whole, sublime in its theory, and wholesome, as well 
as quickening, in' its operation upon the minds of men, and 
the social condition of mankind, forming them to virtue, de- 
votion and greatness, and preparing them, by a wise and sa- 
lutary discipline, for everlasting happiness hereafter. We, on 
the contrary, look upon these new opinions, as not only errone- 
ous in speculation, but crude, unconcocted, unconnected, with- 
out efficiency, calculated to weaken the motives to virtuous 
action among the great mass of mankind, to effeminate their 
character, and, in the advance of society towards luxury and 
refinement, to open the door to a general licentiousness and 
profligacy of manners. We do not say, that these would be 
the immediate results of the Unitarian plan, but they w r ould 
undoubtedly be the ultimate. The Dr., indeed, reads us excel- 
lent lessons about the justice, as well as the mercy of God, 
and there is not a Divine in the land, who would not yield 
a cordial assent to almost all that he asserts about the attri^ 
butes of Deity, and who would not also agree with him, that 
justice, in the Divine Being, is only a modification of his mer- 
cy; but, we cannot discover in all that account which he 
gives of his justice, any thing corresponding to the gospel re- 
presentation, or which is calculated to inspire the guilty with 
that pungent apprehension, that efficacious fear, which shall 
deter them from vice. If the God of the Calvinist, be allowed 
to be too morose and severe a Being, to be an exact simili- 
tude of our Heavenly Father, the God whom he delineates, 
is a Being actuated by a weak and over-weening benevolence, 
who relinquishes the claims of justice, to indulge the meltings 
of compassion, and gives encouragement and license to ini? 
quity, by those relaxations of his law, to which he is prompt- 



99 



ed by his mercy. We find no such God as this exhibited to us, 
either in scripture, or the volume of nature. As a proof of 
the fallacy and injurious tendency of his opinion of God, we 
would mention the next topick treated of by him, in which 
he rejects the doctrine of atonement, or the vicarious sacri- 
fice which was offered by Christ for the sins of mankind. This 
is a fundamental doctrine of our religion, and in connection 
with the Divinity, the very life blood and vital spirit of Chris- 
tianity. Remove this corner-stone of the edifice, and the whole 
structure must soon fall to ruin. His objections to the doctrine 
of atonement, are the following. " It teaches that God re- 
mits the punishment of the offender, in consequence of re- 
ceiving an equivalent from an innocent person; that the suf- 
ferings of the sinner are removed by a full satisfaction made 
to divine justice, in the sufferings of a substitute. And is 
this the quality of mercy ? Vv feat means forgiveness, but the 
reception of the returning child, through the strength of 
parental love V 9 And, in other places, he speaks of it as dis- 
honourable to God, to suppose that he will not remit the pen- 
alty of sin, without satisfaction made to his justice. This, 
then, is his profound idea of the " quality of mercy" in God, 
that he receives the returning child, through the strength 
solely of parental love. And, where do we find any proof 
that God is a being of this nature ? Is it to be collected either 
from his word, or his works ? As to his word, let those numer- 
ous passages that relate to the sacrifice upon the cross, and 
those tremendous denunciations hurled against the impenitent 
and guilty, with which the scriptures are replete, answer. 
And where shall we find in the works of nature a God so 
complacent and forgiving, as to pardon and remit the penalty 
of transgression, upon the simple repentance of the offender? 
Not, surely, in those remorses, that pursue the guilty, and 
bring down their heads in sorrow to the grave. Not in those 
miseries w r hieh imprudence, rashness, rage, revenge, and all 
the direful passions inflict upon mankind, and which plant in 
their memories those rooted sorrows, which nothing but a 
Saviour's mercy can pluck out of them. Not in the effects 
produced upon the bosom, by the squandering of fortunes at 
the gaming-table. Not in the incurable diseases superinduced 
by excess. Not in the tears and unavailing lamentations of 
those who have irrecoverably stained their honour, or blight- 
ed their reputations. Ah! We see clearly displayed in the 
course of God's moral Government, the administration of a 
Being, who, although in the midst of judgment, he re mem- 



100 



bers mercy, yet, when his laws have been violated, discovers 
a dreadful determination, that he will by no means spare the 
guilty, and makes it evident to the whole earth, that it is a 
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 

Let it, then, be distinctly understood, that, neither as Chris- 
tians nor Philosophers, can we discover any reason to be asha- 
med of the cross of Christ. To the Jews it may have been a 
stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but, to those 
who are acquainted with the character of God, or the original 
constitution of man, it is the power of God, and the wisdom 
of God, making ample provision for the recovery of our race, 
from their fallen and lost condition by nature. It is the rain- 
bow that betokens to the penitent, that the storm of divine 
wrath has passed away, and the day-star that guides him in- 
to the ways of peace. That, said a venerable Bishop of the 
Church, when he felt that his end was approaching, that, 
pointing to a picture of Christ upon the cross, which was be- 
fore him, is my only hope. And, would that every person 
could but feel its full value during life, that he may partake 
of the consolations that flow from it in the moment of death ! 
What, then, shall we think of the moral feelings of one de- 
nominated a Clergyman of the Church, who could indite, 
preach and publish the following sentiments upon this awful 
topick ? God grant ! that he may live to see the day, in which, 
with bitter remorse of conscience, he shall retract them, and 
turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and find that 
heart overflow 7 with tenderness for a Saviour who has suffer- 
ed so much for him ! Speaking of Christ's atonement, Dr. C. 
says, " Let me, then, set it before you in new terms, and by 
a new illustration ; and, if in so doing, I may wound the feel- 
ings of some who hear me, I beg them to believe, that I do 
it w T ith pain, and from no impulse, but a desire to serve the 
cause of truth. Suppose, then, that a Teacher should come 
among you, and should tell you that your Creator, in order to 
pardon his own children, had erected a gallow r s in the centre 
of the universe, and had publickly executed upon it, in the 
room of the offenders, an infinite Being, the partaker of his 
own Supreme Divinity ; suppose him to declare that this exe- 
cution was appointed, as a most conspicuous and terrible 
manifestation of God's justice, and of the infinite woe de- 
nounced by his law ; and, suppose him to add, that all Be- 
ings in heaven and earth, are required to fix their eyes on this 
fearful sight, as the most powerful enforcement of obedience 
and virtue. Would you not tell him, that he calumniated his 



101 



Maker? Would you not say to him, that this central gallows 
throws gloom over the universe; that the spirit of a govern- 
ment, whose very acts of pardon were written in such blood, 
was terror, not paternal love ; and that the obedience which 
needed to be upheld by this horrid spectacle, was nothing 
worth Such is his account of that great and most interest- 
ing event, which has ever taken place, from the commence- 
ment of the world, or ever shall take place, to its consumma- 
tion. And, it is a little singular, how exactly his opinion here 
again runs parallel to that of Lord Bolingbroke. " Let us 
suppose, then, says his Lordship, a great Prince, governing a 
wicked and rebellious people, and he has it in his power to 
punish, he thinks fit to pardon them. But he orders his only 
beloved son to be put to death, to expiate their sins, and to 
satisfy his royal vengeance. Would this proceeding appear 
to the eye of reason, and in the unprejudiced light of nature, 
wise or just, or good?" We see that the Dr. has not stopped 
again, at the half-way house, but rushed into the quarters of 
the enemy. Mr. Paine mentions, in his works, that, in early 
life, a similar impression w r as made upon his mind, by an ac- 
count which he saw of the crucifixion. The Dr. is heartily 
welcome to the whole fraternity of free-thinkers, as the com- 
panions of his scepticism and infidelity. Such is the monstrous 
perversion, of which this most transcendant effort of divine be- 
nevolence is susceptible, by a vitiated imagination, and a mis- 
guided understanding! ! " God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." This simple declaration, 
which, by the irresistible pathos that attended it, proved itself 
strong as the power of miracles, in subduing the stubborn hearts 
of idolatrous nations, or of the Jews more deeply entrenched in 
prejudices against the religion which proclaimed it, than even 
the heathens themselves — this truth, that melted the bosoms 
of savages, disarmed the fury of the bitterest enemies, gain- 
ed through their hearts, the listening ears of Kings and Prin- 
ces, and disposed them to offices of kindness and benevolence 
towards the heralds of the cross — this truth, to which, they 
who are now engaged in missionary labours, find, the savage 
of the wilderness first turns his attention, and yields his heart 
even before his understanding and his prejudices have thrown 
down the weapons of their hostility, to which youth listens 
with erect attention, and age with renovated hope, which 
gives wealth to the poor, comfort to the desponding, consolation 
to the afflicted^ and triumph to those who are departing from 



102 



the world — this truth, so replete with instruction, rich in con- 
solation, inestimable amidst the wants and sufferings of our 
nature, containing in its terms of awful import, a mystery of 
love too deep for man to fathom, and which even Angels de- 
sire to look into — includes in it an act of horrid malignity 
and shocking cruelty ! Could we believe it possible that hu- 
man reason could be so egregiously perverted ? Can the hu- 
man mind be rendered so blind and infatuated, with the spirit 
of innovation and reform ? One would think that a person who 
talks in this style, must suppose all the rest of mankind ever 
since the time of the death of Christ, have been either 
fools or knaves, however elevated by rank and talents, or 
adorned by piety and virtue. The most illustrious men who 
have ever lived, the masters of reason and lights of sci- 
ence, the finest productions from the hands of God, and the 
noblest ornaments to their race, have lived under the habitu- 
al impression that that was an act of the most exalted love, 
which w as an effort of the most direful barbarity ; have re- 
ceived consolation from an event which they ought to have 
contemplated with disgust and horror. This is a moral dis- 
covery, indeed, which should it have the quality of truth to 
recommend it, would entitle its author to perpetual honour. 
Unhappily, however, for the claims of the great discoverer, 
if there be any truth written in more legible characters in 
the New Testament than all others, and more frequently and 
significantly adumbrated in the Old, it is the doctrine of a 
vicarious atonement, to expiate the sins of men. It would 
seem as if both dispensations had laboured and travailed 
with it, more than with any other, until its birth and pro- 
mulgation among mankind. It is even found intimated in the 
constitution of our own minds, inscribed in legible characters 
■upon the tablets of our hearts, in our consciousness of guilt, 
and tendency to make satisfaction to God for offences com- 
mi t ted against his law. 

Now, in what manner, shall we undertake to carry convic- 
tion to the minds of those, who are so deeply prepossessed 
against this doctrine ? As it is an affair of moral feeling, and 
relates to virtue and vice, the appeal lies to the perceptions of 
the moral sense, and if this sense be dimmed, or disordered, 
a correct estimate seems to be precluded. He w T ho regards an 
act as marked by malignity and cruelty, which all other per- 
sons consider as an instance of god-like virtue, is inaccessible 
to truth, and utterly supersedes all attempts to induce him to 
alter his views, or rectify his error. There is no disputing 



103 



tastes, is the old proverb ; and, concerning acts of morality, 
the apothegm is equally applicable. He who is bent upon con- 
sidering the attempt of Abraham, to sacrifice his son Isaac, 
as cruelty and premeditated murder, would be beyond the 
reach of argument. The case stands in this wise. God creates 
the human race, with powers and principles propelling them 
to virtue, but, in some respects, strongly inclined to evil, al- 
lows them liberty to choose virtue or vice ; and man, abusing 
his liberty, becomes guilty, is in the habit of constantly con- 
travening the laws of his God. Now, when he has committed 
an act flagrantly violating those laws which his Creator has 
written in his heart, as, for example, the murder of a fellow 
creature, the question arises, whether he would be immedi- 
ately forgiven, upon his repentance, without any satisfaction 
made to the Divine law ? We know that this would not be 
regarded, under the laws of any country, as a sufficient in- 
ducement to the legislator, to remit the penalties annexed to 
such crime, and allow the offender to escape with impunity. 
Is there any reason to believe, that God will accept of such 
plea, and receive his penitent children to his pardon without 
exacting a penalty? We discern nothing in what we can dis- 
cover, in reference to the character of God, as he exhibits 
himself 10 us, in his moral government of the world, which 
would lead us to the conclusion, that he is so very placable 
as to release the sinner from all the penalties of his law, as 
soon as he displays symptoms of penitence and reformation* 
He makes his sun, indeed, to shine upon the evil and the good, 
and his rain descend upon the just and the unjust; and He 
must be gratified with beholding his children smitten with re- 
pentance for their sins, and there is even joy among his an- 
gels, upon their conversion ; but, as the moral Governor of the 
world, it would appear to be incumbent upon Him, to defend 
from violation, the majesty of his law, by inflicting punish- 
ments proportioned to the magnitude of the offences. Those 
sentiments which he has deeply implanted in our bosoms, 
lead us to this conclusion ; and they have been prevalent 
among all mankind, in all ages and nations. Philosophers have 
thought it an insoluble mystery, how God can pardon sin; 
and the vulgar, tormented with their own remorse, in a state 
of guilt, have, as by a kind of instinct, endeavoured to expi- 
ate their offences, and appease their perturbed minds, by sa 
erifices of various kinds, and even by offering the blood of 
their own offspring. It is in vain, that men undertake to de- 
lude themselves with the cry of peace, peace, when their 



104 



throbbing bosoms inform them, that there is no peace ; when 
the spectres of guilt haunt their memories, and plant thorns 
in their pillow ; when diseases, contracted by excess, weigh 
them down to the grave, and when their spirits in vain essay 
to retrieve the losses they have sustained, or to escape from 
the miseries which they have drawn down upon their heads. 
If, therefore, there be safety in trusting to those sentiments 
which are indelibly written upon our own hearts, or which 
are inscribed upon the moral order of the world around us, 
God must and will exact satisfaction for sins, either in the 
sufferings he inflict upon ourselves, or those of a vicarious 
victim, who shall become our substitute, and bear the penalty 
of our guilt, in his own body on the tree. Happy is it for us, 
that we have a Father in Heaven, who has devised the means 
of relief to us, from the tremendous burthen of guilt, and a 
Saviour who has condescended to interpose his bosom, to re- 
ceive the torrent of that wrath which is poured out against 
transgression, and which would have overwhelmed us with 
hideous ruin and combustion to all eternity. Is it not enough, 
that God, from the plenitude of his loving-kindness and ten- 
der mercy, has made such ample provision for our salvation, 
and, from his free and flowing grace, has sent his beloved Son 
to be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our ini- 
quities, thereby saving the majesty of his law, and illustrat- 
ing his holy abhorrence of sin ; must we, also, expect him to 
extend encouragement to crime, and become a partaker of the 
sins of mankind, by relinquishing the demands of justice, and 
giving impunity to vice ? The God whom revelation presents 
to us for our adorations, who either exacts of sinful man, the 
penalty of his transgressions, or requires that penalty to be 
paid by the sufferings of a substitute, is the God, however se- 
vere and morose we may deem the features of his character, 
whom reason, pure and unsophisticated reason, would frame 
for us, deriving her materials from the sentiments of our own 
minds, and from the moral order of the world around us. 

But, says Dr. C. " This doctrine of an infinite satisfaction, 
or, as it is improperly called, of an infinite atonement, sub- 
verts, instead of building up hope, because it argues infinite 
severity in the government which requires it." Superlative 
inference ! profound logick ! Dr. Dodd has committed an of- 
fence, by which he has forfeited his life to the laws of his coun- 
try, and the King of England, from compassion for the un- 
happy sufferer, offers his son as a substitute, to pay the pen- 
alty, who is executed in his stead, and the King discovers ex- 



105 

cessive severity towards the Divine, by persisting in the faith- 
ful execution of the law ! The Apostle's ideas certainly ran in 
a contrary direction, and he formed an entirely different esti- 
mate of the matter, when he declared that God, for the great 
love wherewith he loved us, gave his " Son to be a propitia- 
tion for our sins." In fact, it does appear utterly inconceiv- 
able to us, how any one who reads his Bible, or such a trea- 
tise as that of Bishop Magee, which is a triumphant argument 
upon the subject, can have a doubt remaining in his mind, 
concerning the atoning efficacy of the blood of Christ, and 
the nature of that sacrifice which he has offered for us. It 
would seem impossible, that any mind can be so discoloured 
by prejudice, as not to see this doctrine inscribed upon Chris- 
tianity, in characters that nothing can efface. And, however 
misconception may distort, and prejudice discolour the great 
transaction upon the cross, when regarded under the views 
of the most high-toned orthodoxy, God will ever appear to the 
soul of the reflecting man, as exhibiting to us by that effort an 
illustrious display of mercy. No chymick power of passion or 
prepossession, can everchange his infinite love to barbarity, and 
his Divine benignity into cruelty. We all know that the sad 
spectacle displayed on the cross, awakes emotions far differ- 
ent from those which could be excited by severity or cruelty 
in any shape. The tear that starts into the eye, when con- 
templating the Divine victim, who is there bleeding for our 
sins, is at once the tear of sympathy for the sufferer, and gra- 
titude to the God who thus extends to us his loving-kindness 
and tender mercy. There is no deception in this case prac- 
tised upon the understanding, there can be none, for the heart 
in such cases outruns the head, and arrives safely at the con- 
clusion, before the reason has time to deliberate. But, says 
the Dr., " this doctrine invests the Saviour with a claim of 
merit, with a right to the remission of the sins of his follow- 
ers, and represents God's reception of the penitent, as a re- 
compense due* to the worth of his Son. And is mercy, which 
means free and unreserved love, made more manifest, more 
resplendent, by the introduction of merit and right, as the 
ground of our salvation ?" Surely, when it was infinite love 
and mercy, that led to the purchase of the title, the right, 
the ground of salvation. Is it not an infinitely greater effort 
of love in God, to offer the sacrifice for us, to obtain our title 
to forgiveness, than it would be to extend forgiveness to the 
penitent, without requiring satisfaction ? In the one case, he 
aets as a God who has just abhorrence of sin, and, as the Go- 
14 



106 



vernor of the Universe, is determined to punish and discour- 
age it ; in the other, he would be supposed to act from a mere 
blind and senseles impulse. We are really mortified to hear 
from one whom we so much respect, such trifling objections 
against a most awful and interesting truth. No doubt it would 
be in the highest degree gratifying to the vicious, to under- 
stand that God is so placable, as to forgive their trespasses, 
without any satisfaction ; but this consideration would be the 
most destructive to morals that can be imagined, and throw 
open the flood-gates of evil upon society. Such an idea, would 
throw into the deepest shades, the justice, wisdom, and fore- 
sight of the Deity. The orthodox doctrine, therefore, when 
rightly apprehended, pours from the Deity a flood of glory, 
emanating from all his attributes, in harmonious operation 
with each other. But, the Dr. says, " that nothing should 
stand between the soul, and God's mercy — nothing should 
share with mercy, the work of our salvation. Christ's inter- 
cession should ever be regarded as an application to love and 
mercy, not as a demand of justice, not as claim of merit." 
Why, then, according to his own plan, need there be any in- 
tercessor ? If God's mercy is so freely given, what need can 
there be of the mediation of a Third Person, to obtain for- 
giveness for man ? Surely the Creator would not have requir- 
ed such an operose process, merely to induce him to forgive 
those transgressions, of which he thought so slightly, that he 
could pardon them, without exacting the slightest sacrifice. 
Again, the Dr. perseveringly cavils. " Christ, as now viewed 
by multitudes, hides the lustre of that very attribute, which 
it is his great purpose to display. To many, Jesus wears the 
glory of a more winning tenderness than his Father, and he 
is regarded as the sinner's chief resource." The Trinitarian, 
indeed, rejoices that the Son is the sinner's chief resource : 
but the very gift of the Saviour exalts, beyond all concep- 
tion, his estimation of the Father's tenderness. Instead of 
Christ's sacrifice hiding the lustre of his Father's goodness, 
it causes it to blaze forth with unclouded majesty. The Dr.'s 
method of reasoning, would convert love to hatred, benevo- 
lence into cruelty, mercy into barbarity, the milk of human 
kindness into the gall of bitterness, and .the choicest influen= 
ees shed from Heaven upon our rsce, into pestilence or poi- 
son. The Dr continues : " Did I believe what Trinitarianism 
teaches, that not the least transgression, not even the first sin 
of the dawning mind of the child, could be remitted without 
an infinite expiation, I should feel myself living under a legis= 



107 



lation unspeakably dreadful, under laws written like Draco's, 
in blood ; and, instead of thanking the Sovereign for provid- 
ing an infinite substitute, I should shudder at the attributes 
which render this expedient necessary." There was certainly 
a very natural association in the Dr.'s mind, between the sys- 
tem of Draco, which inflicted capital punishments upon all 
offences whatsoever, and that of the Creator, which, by the 
capital punishment of a single sufferer, offers pardon to ail 
others, upon reasonable conditions. As contrast forms one of 
the bonds of association, by which our ideas are linked to- 
gether, this was a natural connection. What the Dr. alludes 
to, when he speaks of the " first sin of the dawning miud of 
the child, requiring an infinite expiation," we cannot conjec- 
ture, unless it be the result of some double-refined Calvinis- 
tick system, or some ardent expression of an enthusiast, utter- 
ed in the heat of debate; but we certainly know of no sys- 
tem of theology, in which such a doctrine would be maintain- 
ed. The first sin of the child, would, we presume, require a 
Saviour's blood to expiate it, as well as the last sin of his de- 
clining life; but we do not hear of any attempts, in the writings 
of Divines, to determine the exact degree of expiation which is 
proportioned to each sin, except it be in allusion to that sage and 
lucrative arrangement made in the Romish Church, in which 
the several sums of money that should be paid for the com- 
mission of the several sins, was nicely adjusted, by which 
Lord Peter is said largely to hav e supplied his coffers. Know- 
ing that, as our great High-Priest had entered once for all iii- 
io the Holy of Holies, and, by the sacrifice of himself once 
offered, made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation 
and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, we gave our- 
selves no further solicitude, contented with the conviction, 
that the work of our redemption was fully accomplished, and 
that there was no necessity for inquiring into the precise de- 
gree of atonement which must be made for a given portion of 
guilt. We do not find it asserted in the sacred scripture, that 
even peccadillos could not be pardoned, without an infinite 
expiation, and we are not disposed to inquire how great the 
guilt must be, before an expiation becomes necessary, since 
the scriptures solve no such idle controversies. But, says the 
Dr., " He who framed all souls, and gave them their suscep- 
tibilities, ought not to be thought so wanting in goodness and 
wisdom, as to have constituted a universe,, which demands 
,;o dreadful and degrading a method of enforcing obedience, 
as tfee penal sufferings of a God." The celebrated German 



108 



Philosopher, Leibnitz, supposed, that, in the conceptions of the 
Divine Mind, when he was meditating upon the plans which 
presented themselves, according to which he was to form the 
universe, there was a Best, or one better than all the rest, and 
that to this Best system, taken upon the whole, the Deity con- 
formed the universe, and hence his scheme Was denominated 
optimism. Now, although we cannot accede to the opinion of 
Leibnitz, that there must have been one system presenting 
itself to the Divine mind, which, taken all together, must have 
been the Best, or better than all others, since there , might 
have been many systems equally good as the one which was 
formed, although there certainly could have been none bet- 
ter, as infinite wisdom, in that case, must have preferred it \ 
yet how can the Dr. declare, that, in this world, which was 
formed by the Creator, the plan of redemption, by Jesus 
Christ, might not have entered as an essential ingredient ? 
This may not be the case with the other Planets that travel 
round the Sun. Alphonzo, King of Spain, is said to have as- 
serted, that, had he been present at the creation, he thought 
he could have given to the Almighty some important hints. 
We presume that the Dr. must think that he could have done 
the same thing, and, by introducing the Saviour as a mere 
man, he would have improved the system. Who art thou, O 
man ! that callest in question the wisdom of thy Maker ! 
Canst thou by searching, find out God ? Canst thou find out 
the Almighty to perfection ? His nature and his ways are 
covered with clouds, which thy feeble sight ought not to ex- 
pect to penetrate. We have now perused almost all the great 
productions of human genius, in those branches of science 
which we have had a desire to cultivate, and, with peculiar 
care and attention, those which relate to the interesting sci- 
ence of the human mind ; and, in all of them, we have re- 
marked a very modest strain of speaking, in regard to the 
limits of human knowledge, and man's power of comprehend- 
ing the several subjects presented to his investigation ; but, 
we must be allowed to declare, that, in all the course of our 
reading, we have never met with an author who seems less 
sensible of this truth, than the one with whose opinions we 
are now at variance, and who has permitted it less to operate 
upon his conduct. The subjects about which he declaims, are 
the most difficult and abstruse, that ever occupy the atten- 
tion, or engage the speculations of the human mind ; they have 
been subjects of doubt, disputation and perplexity, in all ages; 
and, after the most mature consideration and profound study, 



109 



mankind have established some principles, which appear to 
be founded in scripture, and right reason. At the time of the 
reformation, these maxims, after fair and full examination, 
were incorporated into the orthodox creed, and transmitted 
from generation to generation, until they have become conse- 
crated in the minds of believers. Now, one would think, that 
these considerations would present to most writers and speak- 
ers, motives sufficient to induce them to treat them with the 
greatest delicacy, respect, and tenderness. What, however, 
is the treatment they receive, in the work before us ? These 
doctrines and principles are questioned, vilified, decried, de- 
nounced in a spirit of the greatest virulence, rancour, and 
apparent animosity, while all the most venerable institutions 
of Christianity, are subjected to the severest censure, and in- 
discriminate invectives. Certainly every ingenuous mind will 
allow, that these things ought not so to be. We recommend 
strongly to the Dr., to recollect who it was that said, verily 
I thought within myself, that I ought to do many things con- 
trary to the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. God grant ! 
that the issue may, in this case, be as happy as it was in that 
of the blessed Apostle, and that we may live to see the Re- 
verend gentleman become a zealous preacher of those doc- 
trines, which, in the pride of reason, and presumption of va- 
nity and ambition, he now repudiates ! 

The following observations conclude what we shall refer to 
in the animadversions of the Dr. concerning the atonement, 
as we. have already considered the subject sufficiently in de- 
tail. " The Trinitarian tells me, he remarks, that according to 
his system we have an infinite substitute, that the infinite God 
was pleased to bear our punishment, and consequently that 
pardon is made sure. But I ask him, do I understand you ? 
Do you mean that the great God who never changes, whose 
happiness is the same yesterday; to day and forever, that this 
eternal Being really bore the penalty of my sins, really suffer- 
ed and died ? Every pious man when pressed by the question, 
answers no. What, then, does the doctrine of infinite atone- 
ment mean ? Why this : that God took into union with him- 
self our nature, that is a human body and soul, and these 
bore the sufferings for our sins, aud through his union with 
these God may be said to have borne it himself. Thus this 
vaunted system goes out in words. The infinite victim proves 
to be a frail man, and God's share in the sacrifice is 'a mere 
fiction." This story is told with all the air of triumph assumed 
by one who has discovered an irresistible demonstration of 



110 



the proposition he undertakes to prove. Pythagoras could 
scarcely have exhibited more self-complacency, in stating the 
proofs of that celebrated theorem that bears his name. And 
undoubtedly, if the proof of the Rev. Dr. were sound, it 
would be as important a proposition to revelation as that of 
Pythagoras was to mathematical science. It would utterly 
subvert the system of Christianity, or that form of it which 
only is valuable to mankind. But is it to be believed, that ait 
objection of this kind which is so very obvious, and lies upon 
the surface of things, never occurred to those illustrious men, 
who, in all ages, have embraced our faith, and who would 
certainly have detected such a fatal fallacy, if it had been in- 
fected with it, and have consigned it to that oblivion which it 
would justly have merited? If the Dr. had dived a little more 
deeply into this mystery, and understood its metaphysicks a 
little better, he would have found his error corrected, and 
would not have brought his metaphysical acumen into disre- 
pute, by hazarding such a sophism. The doctrine of the or- 
thodox creed, is, that the atonement offered by Christ for the 
sins of mankind receives an infinite value from the connection 
of the human nature with the Divine in the victim. The Dr. 
undertakes to refute this assertion by the following syllogism 
when placed in due form. In order that the sacrifice should 
have infinite value, the Divine nature must have suffered with 
the human, since from it that value is derived. But the Di- 
vine nature did not suffer with the human. Therefore the sac- 
rifice had not infinite value, and the whole reasoning derives' 
its force from a fiction, and goes out in smoke. But before 
this syllogism can be allowed, we must scrutinise the justness 
of the premises, and see that they be founded in right reason. 
No one denies that when Christ suffered upon the cross his 
Divine nature was united to the human, and sympathised 
with it, as it did in all other situations and circumstances of 
his lite. Before, therefore, the Dr. can legitimately conclude, 
that the Divine nature did not so far sympathise with the hu- 
man as to communicate to the sufferings of the cross an infi- 
nite value, he must solve the following problem; what is the 
degree of sympathy which the Divine nature in Christ must 
have sustained with the human, in order to communicate to 
its sufferings an infinite value ? or a value commensurate with 
its own attributes ? When this problem is 'clearly determined 
against us, or it be decided that the Divine nature in Christ 
did not so far sympathise with the human as to communicate to 
his sufferings an infinite value, we must give up our creed, but 



Ill 



*iintil this is done, we shall remain so recreant still as to adhere 
to our faith, believing that although the Divine nature, always 
infinitely happy, could not have snstained the agonies of the 
cross, and been made wretched by them, yet that the sympa- 
thy it sustained for the sufferings of the human was sufficient 
to communicate to them an infinite value. The Dr. often 
speaks of his Father in Heaven, and seems to derive great sat- 
isfaction in recognizing the relations in which he stands to 
him. Now, must not this Father, if he be really interested for 
us his children, pity the sufferings which in the course ofPro» 
vidence, we are sometimes called upon to sustain, and does 
not this imply that he is sensible of that sentiment which we 
denominate pity, but without that uneasiness which accompa- 
nies it in us ? Indeed the scriptures, no doubt, with the same 
understanding, represent him as actuated by all the strongest 
passions of the human heart. Why, then, could not Christ, 
when his human nature was even intimately united to the 
Divine, be presumed to have that Divine nature so deeply 
sympathising in his sufferings, as to communicate to them the 
value which is ascribed to them ? It was not a man merely 
that was suffering, but a compound Being, a God-man, and is 
there any difficulty in transferring the dignity of the sufferer 
to the sacrifice which he makes ? God is said on all occasions 
to care for us, to pity us as a father pitieth his children, to be 
anxious for our salvation ; to be merciful, kind, and filled 
with tenderness and compassion ; and therefore, when united 
with our nature in the man Christ Jesus, he may have suffi- 
ciently sympathised in that sacrifice upon the cross to con- 
vey to it an infinite value, without having his celestial happi- 
ness impaired or interrupted. Is it any more difficult to con- 
ceive of this, than that, according to Newton, God should be 
every where present substantially, and yet suffer nothing 
from the motion of bodies, while bodies find no resistance 
from his presence and agency ? So the Dr. may still perceive 
that this doctrine may give more than a moment's ease to a 
thinking, if not unbiassed man, and unsettle none of his hope. 
On the contrary, we cannot but indulge the hope, that the 
views which we have given of the subject, may reconcile the 
Dr. to the doctrine of infinite atonement, and prevent him 
from casting himself too presumptuously upon God's mercy, 
before the claims of justice are satisfied, and he find, when it 
is too late, that his confidence has rested upon unstable 
ground, and will vanish like smoke in the day of trial. 



112 



DISSERTATION XV. 



Nec Deus iritersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus 
Inciderii. Horace. 

Dr. C. proceeds, in the next place to treat of miracles, and 
during the progress of his discourse says many excellent 
things, and the performance altogether is able, eloquent, and 
interesting. None of the peculiar tenets of his creed are per- 
ceptible in it. We cannot, however, refrain from suggesting to 
him, in passing, a few observations in regard to those princi- 
ples of philosophy which he assumes as maxims from the Scot- 
tish school of metaphysicks. He talks familiarly of a princi- 
ple of credulity in human nature, of a principle by which we 
instinctively decide that for every effect there must be a 
cause, and of an inductive principle, by which we determine 
that the future course of nature will be like the past. These 
expressions in ordinary discourse, or writing, might be inno- 
cently used, and serve to designate very distinct and accurate 
conceptions of the mind, but when employed as terms of art 
in the Scottish Metaphysicks, we maintain that they are en- 
tirely insignificant or expressive only of the fallacious con- 
ceptions of an unsound metaphysicks. The laws which they 
denote as among those which are discoverable amidst the op- 
erations of the human mind, are not genuine, but mere inter- 
polations, or supposititious adjuncts to the simple and genuine 
operations of nature. If, for instance, by the principle of cre- 
dulity, were meant, that tendency of uninformed minds to 
the belief of wonderful stories and supernatural events, there 
is nothing objectionable in the phraseolosy, and, it is not 
doubted, that there is such a disposition prevalent among the 
illiterate, and which philosophy can explain in a most com- 
plete and satisfactory manner. But when Dr. Reid and his 
followers talk of a principle of credulity, as one of the con- 
stituent parts of our nature, imparted in its original organi- 
zation ; and that by this the child is not only led to the be- 
lief of the hob-goblin stories of its nurse, and every incredi- 
ble fiction, but also to repose its earliest confidence in human 
testimony, we say that there is no necessity for the admission 
of a distinct principle of this kind, to explain all the phe- 
nomena of the human mind. Suppose the understanding of 



113 



the child to be in a state of entire indifference as to all mat- 
ters of fact, it would find that reports made to it by others, 
would be so frequently true compared with the instances in 
which they were false, that it would very rationally lend its 
credit to them, and from its ignorance of the laws of nature 
soon allow itself to be imposed upon by the designing or the 
mischievous, not being able at first nicely to discriminate the 
cases in which it should yield or refuse assent. Where, then, 
is the necessity of supposing an original principle of credulity 
in children, distinct from all other instincts and faculties of 
the mind, when by conceiving of it as possessed of judgment 
and reason, the two powers of the mind in which belief are 
concerned, you at once have all the phenomena solved ? The 
child finds, from a period more remote than that to which its 
memory extends, that the reports which are made to it by its 
nurses, its parents and friends, correspond exactly to facts as 
they are unfolded in the course of its experience, and it comes 
to repose perhaps too unlimited confidence in the testimony 
of others, but afterwards learns from observation, to distrust 
the reports of witnesses when any circumstances intervene 
that throw doubt or uncertainty upon them. Thus the old sys- 
tem of philosophy, which recognised no such principle in our 
constitution as that of credulity, is found adequate to explain 
all the phenomena of this kind. That is as much to be re- 
garded as spurious science, which would interpolate new laws 
into the sealed and sacred volume of nature, as that which 
would too sedulously abridge them. In the same or in a simi- 
lar manner it may be proved, that there is no necessity for 
supposing, that there is an original instinct by which we are 
led to the profound conclusion, that for every event in nature 
there must be a cause, inasmuch as it is as regular an infer- 
ence both from experience and speculation, as those by which 
the theory of gravitation is established. Do we not find from 
invariable experience, as far as our observation has extended, 
that no change takes place in the Universe, and no new ob- 
ject is produced without the operation of a cause, and have 
we not sufficient reason, on this ground alone, upon the strict- 
est rules of philosophising to conclude, that no change can 
ever take place without the operation of a cause ? Surely af- 
ter an ample induction of facts, we have a right to draw a 
general conclusion, or we could not now declare that all bo- 
dies around the Earth's surface gravitate towads its centre, 
since no one knows from experience, that this takes place at 
the Poles. Thus ? then, from experience we have a right to our 
id 



114 



inference, that for every effect in nature, there must be an 
adequate cause. We can derive this inference, too, from ab- 
stract reasoning. To suppose any event to be produced by no 
cause, is to suppose something to arise out of nothing, which 
is impossible. That something cannot arise out of nothing, is 
a self evident proposition. But to suppose any change to be 
produced in nature, without the operation of a cause, is to 
imagine something to arise out of nothing, and of consequence 
impossible. Thus again upon the principles of the old system 
of philosophy all phenomena are sufficiently explained. Nor 
is there any difficulty in determining the process by which 
we arrive at a confidence in the continuance of the order of 
nature, or that similar causes will in future, produce similar 
effects, for the solution of which, it has been thought necessa- 
ry to assume the existence and operation of another instinct, 
denominated the inductive principle. We find that fire burns 
us to-day, and we conclude that it will to-morrow. We see 
that cold congeals water and converts it into ice this winter, 
and we expect the same result next winter. These are facts 
which it is thought difficult to explain without supposing an 
instinct by which we infer the future from the past and pre- 
sent. And, yet, one would think, that these are as evidently 
lessons collected from experience, and deductions as regularly 
drawn from premises, as any of the most complex and sub- 
lime lessons of moral, political, or even natural science. One 
would imagine, that no sophistry or artifice could obscure or 
embarrass them. They are not eternal or immutable truths,, 
indeed, but contingent and mutable, and if the Creator chose 
they might be contravened and falsified by an utter change in 
ihe constitution and laws of the Planetary system, but can- 
not our reason and judgment arrive at contingent as well as 
necessary and immutable truth? Has not reason as large a 
share in arriving at the truths of moral science as of those 
which are strictly demonstrative*? And to spend no longer 
time, at present, in the discussion of such points, we shall 
barely remark, that an instinctive principle of our constitu- 
tion, by which we deduce inferences from facts, appears tons 
to involve as great an absurdity as can -well be imagined. 
A principle of induction, therefore, bears no marks about it by 
which to authenticate its claims to an insertion, in the sealed 
and sacred volume of nature. But to proceed, without further 
delay, with our theological discussions. Dr. C. recurs, in the 
discourse now under review, to the evidences upon which the 
truth of Christianity rests. His introductory observations up- 

* See note B. in appendix. 



115 



on this topick, are new and strikingly just and beautiful. He 
enters upon the consideration of Mr. Hume's argument a- 
gainst miracles, states it correctly, but thinks, that it does 
not merit the attention which has been paid to it, being in it- 
self rather specious than solid, and has derived its weight 
from the character of its author. On the contrary, we per- 
ceive that Dr. C. has never studied and thoroughly under- 
stood this objection, for, if he had he never could have pas- 
sed over it so lightly, nor contented himself with remarking 
that Dr. Campbell has shown that it rests upon the equivocal 
use of a term. If Mr. H's. argument had rested upon the 
equivocal use of a term, it is not likely that it would have 
puzzled so many learned and able heads to furnish a satisfac- 
tory answer to it. It is true, that writer does, with his usual 
disingenuousness and subtilty, make an equivocal use of the 
term experience, sometimes taking it as implying our own 
personal experience, and at other times, the experience of all 
mankind ; but it is not true, that the force of his objection is 
at all affected by this equivocation. His argument, indepen- 
dently of this circumstance, stands good, and will appear the 
more imperiously to demand a satisfactory refutation, the 
more we are acquainted with it, and with those principles of 
metaphysical science, upon which it professes to be founded,, 
We think that the Dr. would have given vastly more interest 
and effect to this discourse, if he had passed through the toil . 
of a thorough comprehension of it, as we trust will evidently 
appear from that slight examination to which we shall subject 
the views w r hich he presents of the subject. " This argument, 
says he, affirms that the credibiliy of facts or statements, is to 
be decided, by their accordance with the established order of 
nature. Now, if nature comprehended all existences and all 
powers, this position might be admitted. But, if there is a 
Being higher than nature, the origin of all its powers and 
motions, and whose character falls under our notice and ex- 
perience as truly as the Creation, then there is an additional 
standard to which facts and statements are to be referred ; 
and works which violate nature's order will still be credible, 
if they agree with the known properties and attributes of its 
author; because for such works we can assign sn adequate 
cause and sufficient reasons, and these are the qualities and 
conditions on which credibility depends." In this passage, the 
Dr. seems to have fallen into the same erroneous conceptions 
of Mr. Hume's argument, as Dr. Dwight has done, in those 
excellent lectures, which he delivered to the students of Yale 



116 



College. Mr. Hume's argument does not affirm that the ered* 
ibility of facts or statements is decided only by their accord- 
ance with the established order of nature, for that would be 
at once a petitio principii or begging of the question, since 
we all allow, and he expressly asserts that the very definition 
of a miracle includes in it the idea, that it is a contravention 
of the ordinary laws of nature. This, therefore, would have 
been very slender ground on which to rest so momentous a 
conclusion. Mr. H's. objection to miracles, lies much deeper, 
and is vastly more subtil and ingenious. His argument is, 
that a miracle cannot be proved by human testimony, because 
of the truth of human testimony we are assured only by a 
variable experience, while of the established order of nature 
we are assured by an invariable experience. We know from 
experience, that men are capable of mistake and falsehood, 
but we never knew a human body raised from the dead. 
There is, therefore, an evidence derived from invariable ex- 
perience against a miracle, and an evidence derived from a 
variable experience, in its favour, and, of course, the argu- 
ment against it must always preponderate. That there is a 
presumption against a miracle, arising out of its contrariety 
to the laws of nature, is allowed by Locke and all the philo- 
sophers, and can be denied by no one who is capable of reflec- 
tion, and philosophical in vestigation. The error of Mr. Hume 
lies in asserting, that no human testimony can have force to 
overbalance that presumption. But, certainly, it will never do 
to assert with Dr. C, in order to overcome the argument 
against miracles, arising out of their contrariety to the course 
of nature, that, besides the existence of nature and its laws, 
there are to be recognized the being and agency of God, and 
they, are, therefore, to be deemed credible, when they are 
performed for ends suitable to his character and attributes. 
That the end aimed at, is great and worthy of God, only shows 
that miracles might have been performed to accomplish it, 
but does not demonstrate that they have been. This is a fact 
which rests upon evidence produced to prove it, which must 
consist of experience or testimony, either or both, supported 
by corroborating circumstances. We trust, then, that Dr. C. 
and our readers, will now begin to perceive, that there is pe- 
culiar ingenuity and force in Mr. Hume's argument agqinst 
miracles, that Dr. C, far from refuting, has not reached it; 
and, moreover, we feel ourselves justified in the declaration, 
that, although this reasoning has been successfully traced to 
false conclusions, and shown to contain some latent fallacy, 



117 



by several writers upon this topick. yet that latent fallacy has 
never yet been detected by any of them. The only mode in 
■which it can be completely refuted, is to show that such a 
testimony as that which supports the Christian miracles, does 
not rest upon an evidence sustained by a variable, but an in- 
variable experience of its truth, and this we apprehend is 
readily accomplished, by a recurrence to the condition of the 
Apostles, and primitive promulgers of Christianity. A testi- 
mony so corroborated as that which was furnished by them, 
never was found to be false, in the w T hole history or experi- 
rience of mankind. The reader will find this subject fully in- 
vestigated, in the work called the Search of Truth, by the 
author of these dissertations ; to w r hich he must now refer, as 
he does not wish to enter at present, more largely into the in- 
vestigation of the subject. We have been successively de- 
lighted with the perusal of the works of Dr. Campbell, Bishop 
W atson, Dr. Paley, Dr. Leland, Dr. iSmith and Mr. Bonnet, 
as well as others upon this topick, and we agree that they 
have clearly shown, that Mr. Hume's principle is utterly in- 
admissible, as it may be traced to false and pernicious infer- 
ences but none of them has clearly disclosed, upon the prin- 
ciples of sound philosophy, in what his error consists. This 
deficiency, the author has endeavoured to supply, in the work 
to which he has just referred. 

We must candidly allow, that we do not think the next ar- 
gument of Dr. C. valid, against Mr. H.'s objections. " This 
argument, says he, proves too much, and, therefore, proves 
nothing. For, if I am to reject the strongest testimony to mi- 
racles, because testimony has often deceived me, whilst na- 
ture's order has never been found to fail, then I ought to re- 
ject a miracle, even if I should see it with my own eyes, and 
if all my senses should attest it." The Dr. will allow us here 
to doubt the correctness and conclusive force of the reason- 
ing, as Mr. Hume does not reject the strongest testimony to 
miracles, simply because testimony has often deceived him, 
but because he thinks that no testimony, however corrobo- 
rated, can ever amount to as conclusive proof as that deriv- 
ed from the invariable course of events. And this, so far from 
leading us to reject the evidence of the senses, would lead us 
to repose confidence in them, inasmuch as it is from their in- 
formations, that w r e derive our knowledge of the invariable 
course of nature. The remainder of this discourse, which 
consists in displaying the internal evidences of the Christian 
religion, derived from the character of its Founder, the plan 



118 



he projected, his originality of conception, and comprehension 
of understanding, the circumstances attending the rise and 
progress of our religion, its peculiar principles, the style and 
character of its records, the conduct and sufferings of its first 
Propagators, its miraculous proofs, its prophecies which were 
fulfilled, its influence on social order, and the complete moral 
change it effected in the condition of society, and the opinions, 
habits and manners of mankind, all of which compose a Pan- 
dect of law and evidence, we may say, in favour of Christi- 
anity, which no reasonable mind can resist, and all of which 
are exhibited by Dr. C, in a style of unsurpassed excellence, 
and a masterly force of argument, that would do credit to 
any Pulpit orator that ever lived. We do not recollect ever 
to have seen this evidence so strikingly and. forcibly urged, 
and with more chastened and yet glowing images and illus- 
trations of fancy. O ! si sic omnia. 



DISSERTATION XVI. 



Non tali auxilio nee defensor ibus istis 

Tempus eget. Virgil. 



The next discourse of Dr. C, was preached at the ordina 
tion of the Beverend E. S. Gannet, in Boston, upon the lead- 
ing traits of the present age, and the influence they should 
have upon a Christian Teacher. Of course, the newly ordain- 
ed Pastor is not expected, indeed, to encounter wolves, as the 
first Promulgers of Christianity did, in the shape of blood- 
thirsty persecutors, but with inveterate errors and corrupt 
institutions of Christ's Church, oftentimes more formidable 
than wolves and persecutors. He is henceforth to record him- 
self as a spiritual Quixote, sallying forth to encounter those 
Giants, converted into Dwarfs, the old-school Divines, and 
those wind-mills that grind their corn, the church establish- 
ments; and, moreover, to rescue from the hands of these 
drowsy Shepherds, the flocks of sheep which they so unmer- 
cifully fleece. Here again we find, together with many just 
reflections about a learned ministry, and the excellence of 



119 



Christianity, all the spleen, arrogance, querulousness, and 
scurrility of Bolingbroke, return upon us. Would ! that I had 
been present at the creation of the world, said Alphonzo, 
King of Spain, I could have given to the Almighty some im- 
portant hints. And in pursuance of this bright idea, we find 
that great Astronomer, La Place, the Newton we are told of 
France, spending some time and pains, to show in what man- 
ner the Moon might have been so stationed in the Heavens, 
as to have afforded to the Earth a more abundant and com- 
modious light. Now, we presume Dr. C must, in the same 
way, frequently exclaim to himself in soliloquy, and in great 
vehemence of spirit, w r ould ! that I had been with Christ and 
his Apostles ! What important hints I could have whispered 
to them ! We greatly relish what Dr. C. says, concerning the 
necessity of a learned ministry, and we are glad to find that 
all the churches in our country, from the highest to the low- 
est, are becoming more and more impressed with the import- 
ance of an educated clergy, to the growth and prosperity of 
true religion, and an enlightened piety. But we do, from our 
inmost souls, trust that they will endeavour to obtain a really 
learned clergy, and not one that is half-learned, a body of 
men who shall be profoundly versed in science, and not those 
who are elated with a smattering. Those who are half-learn- 
ed, half educated, and half endowed, are the very persons, 
who, becoming wise in their own conceit, and learned vastly 
above what is written, are most prone to discard those max- 
ims which the wisdom of ages has recommended to them, 
and substitute in their stead, every crudity and folly which 
their own brains can engender. Rather would we have a min- 
istry issuing from the plough, the work shop or the counter, 
who would rigidly adhere to that " form of sound words con- 
tained in scripture," than have a body of men most distin- 
guished for their talents and erudition, the most illustrious 
that ever gave dignity to the bench, or lustre to the pulpit, 
who would corrupt, by the impure mixtures of their own vain 
speculations, the pure milk of the Divine word, or who would 
vex the church with heresies, and distract and rend her sa- 
cred body with schisms. 

The next sermon of the Dr. was preached in New York, 
at the dedication of the Unitarian Church in that city, and, 
in it, he proposes to illustrate and prove the superiority of 
Unitarian Christianity, as a means of promoting a deep and 
noble piety. Before we enter upon an examination into the 
accuracy of his views upon this point, we beg the indulgence 



120 



of the reader, for a moment, while we turn aside to display 
that sceptical spirit, which runs through his treatises. It is 
of the very essence of the sceptical philosophy, to discover a 
perfect indifference to truth and certainty, and an utter dis- 
regard to coherence and consistency in one's conceptions and 
views of things, since, to be detected in error or inconsistency, 
does not interfere, in the slightest degree, with the sceptick's 
main design, which is to unsettle the foundations of know- 
ledge, and spread abroad the shades of doubt and uncertain- 
ty. We greatly regret, that a Christian Divine should render 
himself obnoxious to a charge, so much at variance with the 
serious and truth-searching spirit of the gospel. Much rather 
would we discover that such an accusation could be justly al- 
leged only against a Hume, a Voltaire, a Rousseau, and the 
whole motley tribe of atheists and deists. But how shall we 
exonerate the Dr. from an imputation of this kind, when we 
find him at one time affirming what before he had strenu- 
ously and even vehemently denied ? At one moment, he says, 
" that we desire to propagate this doctrine, (Unitarianism,) 
we do not conceal. It is a treasure which we wish not to con- 
fine to ourselves, which we dare not lock up in our own 
breasts. We should rejoice to spread it through this great 
city, to carry it into every dwelling, and to send it far and 
wide, to- the remotest settlements of our country." At an- 
other time, he declares, " J, indeed, belong to that class of 
Christians, who are distinguished by believing, that there is 
one God, even the Father, and that Jesus Christ is not this 
one God, but his dependent and obedient Son. But, my ac- 
cordance with these, is far from being universal ; nor have I 
any desire to extend it. What other men believe, is to me of 
little moment." This is one inconsistency. See a second. 
" Do not, brethren, shrink from the duty of searching God's 
word for yourselves, through fear of human censure and denun- 
ciation. Do not think that you can innocently follow the opini- 
ons which prevail around you, without investigation." Again. 
" We do not mean that we regard our peculiar views as es- 
sential to salvation. Far from us be this spirit of exclusion, 
the very spirit of Antichrist, the worst of all the delusions 
of Popery and Protestantism." At first he informs them, that 
they cannot innocently follow the opinions which prevail 
around them, and next, that all opinions are equally innocent 
which are contracted after investigation. It is a Popish or 
Protestant delusion, to imagine that any one doctrine, in ex- 
clusion of its opposite, is taught in scripture. This is the libe- 



121 



rality of scepticism and incredulity itself, which would de- 
stroy all distinction between one opinion and another, as to its 
virtue or vice, a wholesome and beneficial truth, or a pestilen- 
tial heresy, and which would convert into the greatest of all 
crimes, a firm conviction of the verity of any doctrine what- 
soever. Can a ranker incredulity be inculcated in terms, than 
is contained in the language of a learned Divine ? Could Bo- 
lingbroke, Hume or Voltaire, too, wish a wider door to be 
thrown open for admission into the sacred flock of Christ, 
than is implied in the following statement of the terms of sal- 
vation ? " We hold nothing to be essential to salvation, but 
the simple and supreme dedication of the mind, heart and life 
to God, and to his will." Would not those enemies of our re- 
ligion, regard themselves as included within such accommo- 
dating limits? How unlike is this language to that of Christ 
and his Apostles ! " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved." " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be 
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." '* Repent 
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," and, 
" enter ye in at the straight gate ; many are called, but few 
chosen." But, passing from these important views, let us pn> 
ceed to the investigation of that superiority which Unitari- 
anism is said to possess over the orthodox faith, as a means 
of promoting a deep and noble piety. If any thing of this na- 
ture, could be descried in a theory so hollow 7 and defective, 
it would be a rare discovery, indeed. 

First, Unitarianism is a system most favourable to piety, 
because it presents to the mind one, and one only infinite Per- 
son, to whom supreme homage is to be paid, and does not 
weaken the energy of religious sentiment, by dividing it among 
various objects." We have already exposed the fallacy of 
this assumption, and shown, we trust, that it is founded in a 
false conception of the principle of devotion. Every advan- 
tage claimed by Unitarians in this respect, is enjoyed by the 
orthodox, together with many others, of which Unitarians are 
entirely divested. 

The next consideration which he offers to demonstrate, the 
superiority of Unitarianism as a system of faith, is not sus- 
tained by more satisfactory proof." " Unitarianism, says he, 
is the system most favourable to piety, because it holds forth 
and preserves inviolate the spirituality of God. God is a spi- 
rit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and 
in truth." It is impossible that any creed should more strenu- 
ously recommend the spirituality of God, and the adoration 
16 



122 



of him in spirit and in truth, than that which is orthodox. 
But, while we remain clothed with these bodily organs, and 
are so strongly subjected as we are to the dominion of the 
senses, no circumstance could be conceived, more adapted to 
our compound nature, and better calculated to aid us in the 
worship which we present to God, than that of God mani- 
fested in the flesh, which serves to collect and concentrate all 
our energies, and direct them to one supreme object of devo- 
tion. The mere abstract idea of God, is too cold, remote and 
refined a conception, to attract and fix the attention, and 
awake all the most fervent sensibilities of such sensual crea- 
tures as we are. Such is the constitution of man, as he came 
from the hands of his Supreme Contriver, and it is not in his 
power to alter or amend it. Fleshly organs, as well as intel- 
lectual faculties and moral sentiments, are component parts 
of his nature, and, while he dwells in these earthly houses of 
his tabernacle, he cannot entirely release himself from the 
control of those material laws that regulate and direct his 
operations. Most wisely, therefore, does the incarnation of 
the Saviour, in which the glories of the Godhead were un- 
folded to his sight, accommodate itself to the imperfection, 
imbecility and carnality of his constitution. While the ortho- 
dox creed preserves inviolate the spirituality, immaculate 
purity, and perfection of the Divine nature, it also conde- 
scends to meet his infirmity, by unfolding to him his God, in 
a form the most attractive and interesting to his nature. In 
this way it is, that Christianity exhibits its profound wisdom, 
from its admirable adaptation to the constitution of man. 

These views of the subject will serve to disclose the fallacy 
of those observations which are made by Dr. C. in reference 
to the tendency of Trinitarianism to " materialise our con- 
ceptions of God, and to cause mankind to relapse into the er- 
ror of the rudest ages, by worshipping a corporeal God." 
Far from being a relapse into the errors of the rudest ages, it 
is one of the greatest efforts of divine wisdom, and the no- 
blest refinement of celestial understanding. " If its leading 
feature is the doctrine of a God clothed with a body, and act- 
ing and speaking through a material frame," that great mys- 
tery of God manifest in the flesh, this feature discovers the 
most profound wisdom in nicely accommodating itself to the 
imperfection of our nature, while a system that is detitute of 
this lineament, will not long support its existence among men. 
No other scheme will preserve mankind from the most abom- 
inable idolatries and superstitions. The Creator, anticipating, 



123 



upon this Planet, at least, in the solar system, this glorious 
manifestation of his God-head, has so constituted our nature, 
that mankind cannot rest contented without this condescen- 
sion to their infirmities. They must be allowed to contem- 
plate the Son of God, by this mode exhibited in his human na- 
ture to their view, or they will fabricate for themselves Idols 
of the most odious and pernicious character, and give rise to 
the most proposterous and pestilential practices. It is by this 
measure, most preeminently, that God has made foolish the 
wisdom of this world. It was, in the outset, the stumbling- 
block of the Jewish Nation, and to the Greeks foolishness, 
but we had really hoped, that christians at this late period, 
had discovered that in this method the power of God was 
most successfully exerted, in demolishing the structures of su- 
perstition, and subverting the strong-holds of error. So far is 
this doctrine of the Trinity, from being suited to the infancy 
of our race and the ruder states of society, it could never 
have subsisted among any people, who were not in a conside- 
rable degree accustomed to exercise the powers of abstrac- 
tion and discrimination, for without these, the three Persons 
in the God-head, would inevitably have been regarded as 
Distinct Divinities, and as such have received the honors of 
divine worship, and thus a system of Tritheism or Polytheism 
been legitimated. The Dr. therefore, need not be so sorely 
shocked and offended at those expressions in the Litany of one 
of the Trinitarian churches, venerable for her antiquity, 
Apostolick in her model. of eclesiastical government, and of 
primitive purity in doctrine, illustrious for the learning and 
talents of her ministry, precious in the sight of God for the 
ardor of her devotions and the unrivalled symplicity and sub- 
limity of her forms of worship. She cannot utter a lan- 
guage too passionate to express the feelings of her members, 
nor present images to their minds more pure, touching, and 
accordant to their best and most holy feelings, than, when in 
the commencement of her strivings with her Maker, she 
breaks forth into those impassioned ejaculations of penitence 
and prayer : O God ! the Father of Heaven ! O God, the Son, 
Redeemer of the World ! O God ! the Holy Ghost; O Holy, 
blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God ! 
have mercy upon us miserable sinners. And the mind of that 
christian, must be afflicted with a prurient sensibility upon 
such matters, who feels any repugnance to join in beseeching 
our Blessed Lord, by the mystery of his holy incarnation, by 
his holy nativity and circumcision, by his baptism, fasting 



124 



and temptation, by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross,' 
passion, death, resurrection and glorious ascension, to deliver 
us from all evil. While we strictly adhere to the spirituality 
and infinite purity of the Divine nature and avoid all attempts 
at exhibiting God, by corporeal similitudes, let us not indulge 
a childish fastidiousness upon the subject, neither sanctioned 
by the voice of reason, nor allowed or countenanced in the 
word of God. Pessima res est, says Bacon, error um apotheosis, 
et pro peste intellectus habenda est si vanis accedat venera- 
tio. Let us beware that we make not an Idol of this divine 
simplicity and immaculate purity and spirituality of God him- 
self. And we are really and truly afraid, that with the great- 
er part of mankind, who must unavoidably be occupied with 
the objects of sense, a religion that should confine them with- 
in the bounds of so etherial and sublimated a service to God, at 
no distant date, would be found to evaporate in air or go out 
in smoke. But let it never be lost sight of by the orthodox, 
that while they admit, indeed, that the Second Person, in the 
ever-blessed Trinity, was manifested in human flesh, and for 
a time tabernacled in our feeble nature, yet this does . not ma- 
terialise the Supreme Being, as is asserted, but as clearly and 
distinctly as language can do it, keeps alive the distinctions 
between soul and body, the Divine Being and the matter 
"which he created. Human and Divine properties are not con- 
founded in the form of Christ, and instead of the splendors 
of the God-head being dimmed by his humiliation, they never 
shone with such effulgence as in those rays that beamed from 
his crown of thorns. But says Dr. C. it is, indeed, possible 
that this God-man, may excite the mind more easily, than a 
purely spiritual Divinity, just as a tragedy, addressed to the 
eye and ear, will interest the multitude more than the con- 
templation of the most exalted character. But the emotions, 
which are the most easily roused, are not the profoundest or 
most enduring. This human love, inspired by a human God, 
though at first more fervid, cannot grow and spread through 
the soul, like the reverential attachment which an infinite, 
spiritual father awakens. Refined conceptions of God, though 
more slowly attained, have a more quickening and all-perva- 
ding energy, and admit of perpetual accessions of brightness, 
life and strength. " This is all beautiful speculation, and in 
theory delightful to the pious and philanthropick mind, but is 
subject to the difficulty, that it disappears when touched by 
the wand of truth and experience. The history of the Jewish 
and christian churches serves at once to dispell the illusion 



125 



which the artifice of fine writing had cast over the mind. 
The Jew eternally provoking the most Holy One by his ef- 
forts at a participation of the idolatrous rites and ceremonies, 
of the surrounding nations, and even, sometimes of bloody 
sacrifices and the most shocking cruelties; and on the other 
hand, the christian martyr expiring in torments, rather than 
abandon his belief of the Divinity of Christ, furnish a satis- 
factory comment, in refutation of the text of Dr. C. in re- 
ference to this portion of his work. But it must be allowed to 
discover no small degree of confidence and presumption, and 
a large demand upon the ignorance or patience of his readers, 
when Dr. C. proceeds to remark, in exculpation of the Ro- 
man Catholick for his indulgence in image-worship, and re- 
proof of the protestant, who repudiates it, "that the ground 
of its prohibition to the Jews, viz. that they saw no similitude 
to God, being removed by the appearance of Christ in the 
flesh, the prohibition itself should be regarded as annihilated." 
When did christians allege that the principal reason why im- 
age-worship should not be allowed in the church, is that we 
can form no exact similitude to God ? Or when did they dis- 
cover any repugnance to the exhibition of the Saviour's form 
in statuary and painting? The debasing effects of idolatry, 
and image-worship soon degenerates into idolatry, are nume- 
rous, and acknowledged, and not the least of these is, that 
the knowledge of God as an intelligent agent, is soon buried 
amidst the rubbish and trumpery of superstition. But what 
Christians, except Milton and his Anthropomorphites ever 
thought that the body of Christ bore any strict resemblance 
to that of the Almighty ? No religion therefore, more strong- 
ly than that of Trinitarians should reprobate any attempt to 
represent the God -head by any outward signs or resemblan- 
ces. No one more strongly insists upon the spirituality of God. 
The Trinitarian can appropriate to himself all that has been 
said by Dr. C. upon the subject, under the remaining divi- 
sions of his discourse. Some of the advantages, he attributes 
to Unitarianism, Trinitarianism partakes in common with it, 
others it claims as its exclusive possession. 

In the first place, Trinitarianism, as much as Unitarianism, 
is favourable to piety, by presenting a distinct and intelligi- 
ble object of worship. It presents to us one God, and, because 
that God is said to be composed of Three Hypostases in one 
substance, there is no more confusion introduced into the mind 
in worship, than naturally arise out of his mysterious and in- 
comprehensible nature. Trinitarianism presents to us no 



126 



strange compound of hostile attributes, but a rare arid sub- 
lime assemblage of glorious and harmonious properties of the 
Divine nature. Secondly. Trinitarianism, as much as Unita- 
rianism can do, asserts the absolute and unbounded perfec- 
tion of God's character. Instead of snatching away any rays 
of his glory, it encircles him with the beams of unclouded 
majesty. 

In the next place, Trinitarianism is favourable to piety, be- 
cause it accords with our nature, with the world around and 
"within us ; for, although we may not be able to discern the 
Three Persons of the Trinity, in the motions of the Planeta- 
ry System, or in the structure of the Earth, yet, we perceive 
in them, the inscriptions of that same benignant hand, which 
extended to us the gift of his beloved Son to die for our sins, 
and his Holy Spirit to purify and renew our corrupt nature, 
and thus prepare us^for the enjoyment of his heavenly king- 
dom. Trinitarianism, in its purity, opens the mind to the 
most enlarged views of God, of our own soul, and its glori- 
ous destination. We are merely repeating what Dr. C. consi- 
ders the advantages of Unitarianism, forgetting that Trinita- 
rians are as much in the habit of representing those benefits 
as resulting from their system, as Unitarians can be, and that 
there is a degree of unfairness and want of candor, in thus ap- 
propriating to himself, as exclusive property, what belongs to 
others, in an equal degree. For instance. Why should Dr. C, 
in the next place, affirm that Unitarianism promotes piety, 
by the high place which it assigns to piety, in the character 
and work of Jesus Christ. Does he not assuredly know, that 
Trinitarianism does the same, in an equal, if not superior de- 
gree ? Again. Dr. C. asserts, that Unitarianism teaches that 
the highest work or office of Christ, is to call forth and 
strengthen piety in the human breast, and thus it sets before 
lis this character, as the chief acquisition and end of our be- 
ing. Now, no one imagines that this effect is not equally pro- 
duced by Trinitarianism. But, to come to what he denomi- 
nates a great topick. The Dr. asserts that Unitarianism pro- 
motes piety, by meeting the wants of man as a sinner. In di^ 
rect contradiction to this, we avow that this is the very thing 
which Unitarianism does not effect, the very want which it 
does not supply. The sinner wants a religion which will give 
him information of the manner in which he is to obtain the 
pardon of his sins, satisfy the demands of justice, and obtain 
peace with his Maker, and the comfortable assurance of ever- 
lasting life. He wants, it is true, to know that his Creator is 



127 



merciful, is love in its purest form, and that he has a good- 
ness so disinterested, free, full and strong, that the ingratitude 
and disobedience of his creatures cannot overcome it. But 
the difficulty which disturbs and afflicts him, is to know whe- 
ther he be an object to which this free and overflowing ^race 
will be extended, and this is a difficulty which Unitarianism 
does not solve. 



DISSERTATION XVII. 



Ego verd eas defendam semper, semperque defendi ; nec me ex ea opinibne, 
quam a majoribus accepi de cultu Deorum immortalium, ullhis unquam orati'o 
aut docti, aut indocti movebit.— Cic : de nat : Deorum. 



Having now, Reverend Dr., gone through our review of the 
several tracts you have published upon the various topicks 
embraced in Christian doctrine, we come, at length, to take 
a more extended view of your scheme as a whole, and, by this 
compendious survey, the more effectually to detect its fallacies 
and deficiencies, and to expose its inconsistency, with the 
clear and unequivocal declarations of the sacred scriptures* 
Were the heresy, of which you are an advocate, a new " form 
of unsound words," unheard of in the history of the church, 
it might be presumed to be supported by an evidence which 
is overpowering, and attended by a light, which the defenders 
of the orthodox creed, would in vain essay to resist. But, it 
is only an old error newly decorated with more gaudy trap- 
pings, and clad in a more attractive garb, and, as its progress 
through the Christian world has before been traced, and the 
laws of its rise, advancement and extinction, have been dis- 
tinctly understood, its fate may be readily determined, with- 
out making any pretensions to the spirit of prophecy; and, it 
is by no means difficult to decide, that its reign will be short, 
without being brilliant, and its rapid declension and ultimate 
destruction, as certain as the established laws of physical na- 
ture. Unitarianism has no vital spirit within, and is not en- 
dowed with sufficient strength and activity of constitution 
to obtain for it a long or illustrious subsistence. Either it, or 



128 



Christianity must perish ; and, as there are, at present, no 
symptoms discoverable in the signs of the times, or pro<mos- 
ticks of the future, which indicate a speedy termination to 
the dominion of our holy faith, we cannot be at much diffi- 
culty, in determining which of these alternatives in the pro- 
position, will be likely to be verified, or which of these con- 
tending powers overthrown. We are at no difficulty, in solv- 
ing the phenomenon, why this cold and cheerless doctrine 
has made such lamentable progress among our Eastern breth- 
ren, that sedate and reflecting, and, we may add, intelligent 
people — as well as extended itself, in some degree, into other 
portions of our country ; as, in our estimation, the causes 
which have produced the results, are evident, and open to 
the inspection of the most careless and superficial observer. 
The rancorous spirit of infidelity, which gained such preva- 
lence in Europe, during the last century, and which, in its 
baleful progress, overturned all order in some countries, fill* 
ing them with desolation and bloodshed, extended itself, in no 
slight proportion, into our free and happy land, and prepared 
the minds of some, for an utter rejection of all the truths of 
revelation, and to discard Christianity as an imposture. This 
portion of society, would, of consequence, when they found 
that Christianity cannot be utterly exploded, and the new 
philosophy substituted in its stead, gladly take refuge in a 
theory, which approximates, as nearly as possible, to the prin- 
ciples of unbelief. From the ranks of this class, then, the 
Unitarian churches have been supplied with adherents. But 
this description of members, are, by no means, the most large, 
or most respectable of your congregations. Some have been 
added to your fraternity, by an abhorrence of the severe doc- 
trines, the gloomy spirit, and unsocial habits of the professors 
of Calvinism, proceeding, according to the too usual and na- 
tural resiliency of the human mind, from the extreme of 
rigour, to that of excessive relaxation, both in principle and 
practice. Others, too, we are willing to allow, for we know 
of many such conscientious and excellent men among you, 
have joined you, from the difficulty which they found in yield- 
ing their assent to some of the leading tenets of Christianity. 
These find their minds,'for a time, relieved from the burthen 
of the faith, by discarding those truths which they in vain 
essayed to comprehend, and enjoy a temporary satisfaction, 
in this partial abandonment of the orthodox creed, but from 
which, their native good sense, after the charm of novelty has 
faded, will have as spontaneous a tendency to return into the 



129 



bosom of the Church, as the Planet, which has wandered from 
its orbit, will, by the force of gravitation, verge towards a re- 
instatement, in its prescribed course, in the pathway of Hea- 
ven. It is the natural progress of the human mind, first, to 
have a powerful and prevailing tendency towards the attain- 
ment of truth and expediency, and, for this end, willingly and 
manfully to combat error, and encounter all evils cheerfully, 
and with unwearied industry and perseverance; but, when 
it has achieved the victory, and obtained the benefits of which 
it was in quest, to be dissatisfied and unsated with its present 
possessions, and to set itself forth towards the acquisition of 
something beyond what it now enjoys, and, rather than not 
excite itself into pleasurable action by novelty, to desert ve- 
rity and right themselves. The reformation has communicat- 
ed to us the precious truths of the gospel, in all their original 
purity and native efficacy, and, after a long-continued and 
hard fought battle, in which, for the sake of conscience,, we 
sustained cruel mockings and scourgings, and every species 
of persecution, we have arrived at the full, unmolested and 
delightful enjoyment of them, and shall we not now work out 
our own discomfort and disquietude, by evidencing our utter 
dissatisfaction with them? If we pursued not this course, we 
should not discover the usual ingratitude and waywardness 
of human nature. If we have not real and positive evils to 
annoy and afflict us, we must seek out those which are ima- 
ginary and chimerical. But, for our consolation, let it be re- 
membered, that while time, fashion, and even caprice, may, 
for a season, lead us astray from the path of truth and right 
understanding, nature will at last resume her rights, and 
her decisions be permanently established. Opinionum com« 
menta delet dies, naturae judicia confirmat. It is utterly im- 
possible, that your system of faith should long continue, in a 
country in which mankind have access to the genuine writ- 
ings of the New Testament, and are left at liberty to think 
and act at their pleasure. Already your sect begin to feel the 
necessity of corrupting, curtailing and mistranslating the sa- 
cred text, in order to the existence and prosperity of your 
creed; and, unless this expedient be resorted to, your princi- 
ples cannot long sustain the shock of argument from the sa- 
cred volume, the discrepance between your sentiments, and 
those which are there inculcated, will be detected and ex- 
posed. For example. Haw T is it possible, that your fellow-ci- 
tizens shall long think, with you, that Christ was a mere 
man, subject to errors, infirmities and miseries like others^ 
and barely distinguished from them by a Divine commission, 
17 



130 



when they find him.every where described in scripture, as a 
miraculous and supernatural Being, partaking all the glory, 
arid invested with all the attributes and prerogatives of Deity ? 
How shall they agree with you, that the Holy Spirit is a sim- 
ple influence, an agency or operation of the Divine Mind, 
when they find Him, on all occasions, exhibited truly subsist- 
ing as a distinct and voluntary Agent, performing acts, com- 
municating influences, and producing results, as well as pos- 
sessing all the properties of a Divine Being? How can they 
long submit to your guidance, in rejecting the doctrine of 
atonement, when they behold so strikingly displayed to their 
view, both in the types, figures and prophecies of the old dis- 
pensation as well as the express declarations of the new, the 
victim upon the cross, who was wounded for their transgres- 
sions, and bruised for their iniquities, who made his soul an 
offering for sin, and by whose stripes they were healed 1 In a 
word, they cannot, with you, without an outrage upon the 
clearest dictates of their own reason, believe that their na- 
ture, instead of being depraved and debased by evil propen- 
sities, is pure, immaculate and divine, when they are conscious 
of its deep and fatal taint of depravity and corruption; that 
they stand in no need of the purifying influences of the Holy 
Spirit, when they are sensible of their incapacity for holi- 
ness, without supernatural assistance; that there is no such 
existence as an Evil Spirit, seeking their destruction with 
diabolical malignity, and resorting to every expedient of vio- 
lence and stratagem, to compass his fell design, when they find 
his being, agency and direful dominion, designated in almost 
every page of the sacred volume. They cannot believe with 
you, that there is no place of everlasting torment for the guil- 
ty, when they find its woes denounced against all the workers 
of iniquity, in such unequivocal terms and representations, 
by Christ and his Apostles. Unitarianism and Christianity 
are at utter variance, and irreconcilable hostility with each 
other, and, of consequence, that must decrease until its ut- 
ter extirpation, while this must increase until its consumma- 
tion, in universal prevalence and unbounded sway. 

Again. We object to Unitarianism, that it is not only un- 
true in principle, and unsustained in the word of God, but it 
is wholly inefficient and inadequate as a system of discipline, 
for the regulation, the improvement, and the purification of 
mankind. When an illustrious Roman w as dining at the table 
of Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,and heard from some person pre- 
sent, an account of the Epicurean philosophy, and the etfemi- 



131 



mating principles of that sect, he exclaimed, would that the 
enemies ot Rome, may always entertain such opinions ! He 
saw that the reception of such doctrines, would enfeeble any 
nation, and forever prevent them from becoming formidable 
to their neighbours. The observation, in its full extent, will 
not be maintained to be justly applicable, it is true, in the 
present case, since the national character of our country will 
be modelled by a great assemblage of natural causes, besides 
that of its religion, insomuch that this last may be counter- 
acted and overpowered by others of a more controlling and 
irresistible influence. But, to a certain extent, and under just 
limitations, the maxim has a natural and important applica- 
tion to this nation. When Christianity has produced its full 
effect upon some countries, in which it has subsisted in its ut- 
most vigor, operating under the full force of its doctrines, and 
the constraining influence of its self-denying precepts, it has 
never been found to exercise a too powerful sway, in the re- 
gulation of their manners, and the preservation of order and 
good morals. What, then, would be its operation, when dis- 
armed of its most awful sanctions, having its sublime doc- 
trines disclaimed, and its rigid precepts enervated and disal- 
lowed ? If Christ, when cloathed in the terrors of Divine ma- 
jesty, and represented under the appalling images of King of 
Kings, and as bearing in his hands the keys of death and 
hell, while he is invested, too, with the tremendous title of the 
final Judge of mankind, cannot overawe their minds, and 
constrain them to obedience to his supreme law, what will 
the Saviour accomplish, when his character and claims are 
reduced to a standard similar to those of Socrates, Plato, or 
Confucius ? If men are not, now, deterred from vice, when 
they regard sin as tinged with such dreadful malignity, and 
so hateful to God, as to have required the sacrifice of His Son 
to expiate it, and avert its direful results, what would be the 
license into which they would plunge, if they believed it a light 
and inoffensive evil, easily remitted by God, and drawing af- 
ter it consequences that are scarcely an object of apprehen- 
sion or alarm ? If the vilest and most baleful passions now 
gain dominion over men, and propel them to the commission 
of such atrocious crimes, so as to occasion this Earth to be 
a scene of iniquity and misery, what would be the horrors 
awakened by those passions, were they released from the 
muzzle of those restraints which are now imposed upon them ? 
The awful apprehensions of a God, who is the avenger of 
guilt, and the prospect of everlasting torment, cannot pre- 



132 



vent the world from being deluged with crimes, and overrun 
with those miseries which spring out of them, and who can 
calculate the mischiefs which would ensue, if these salutary 
apprehensions were removed ? The precise reason assigned 
by Epicurus, for endeavouring to disprove the existence and 
government of God, was, that he might relieve mankind from 
those fears which afflicted and tormented them, under their 
belief of a Deity, and a future state. Dr. C, likewise, seems 
resolved to remove those wholesome apprehensions of God, 
as the punisher of guilt, which contribute, more than all other 
causes united, to preserve the social state in its purity and 
moral perfection, and to prevent mankind from plunging into 
all the excesses of licentiousness, and from the lawless rule of 
those passions, which agitate and embitter human life, and 
at length break the bonds that unite and preserve society. 
There can be no doubt that Unitarianism, under the fair and 
plausible show of becoming a more rational faith, and a more 
liberal practice, aims at giving a more ample scope to indul- 
gence in pleasure, of superinducing a more lax morality, a 
less severe discipline upon the life and conversation, a less 
holy and scrupulous walking with God. It disclaims the ne- 
cessity of abstinence, mortification and self-denial, and there- 
by makes the vain attempt to eradicate sin from the heart, by 
lopping off the branches and limbs of the tree of guilt, while 
the root and trunk are still allowed to remain and flourish. 
We still more deeply regret, that this relaxed system of Chris- 
tianity, should have sprung up and gained ground in our 
country, from the deep interest which we feel for the success- 
ful issue of that great experiment of a popular and free go- 
vernment, which is now in a course of trial among our fellow- 
citizens. The greatest evil which could possibly befall our 
race at this time, is, that this interesting experiment should 
fail, the friends of liberty be discomfited and put to silence, 
raid the abettors of tyranny be triumphant. The English na- 
tion has long enjoyed a large and liberal share of civil, poli- 
tical and religious liberty — we are aiming at the attainment 
of greater freedom than is claimed, or even deemed attain- 
able by them; and may the Great Arbiter of events grant, 
that w r e may succeed in the attempt. And, let it be distinct- 
ly understood, that, if ever this great and growing Republick 
is to prove successful, in the operations of its political and 
civil institutions, to perpetuate its liberties, and prove that 
mankind are capable of self-government, these things must 
be accomplished by the promotion of virtue, intelligence, and 



133 



simple and frugal manners among the community. Now, these 
ends can be accomplished, it is allowed by all parties, only by 
the influence of pure and undefiled religion. He only, who 
lives in the fear of God, and under the influence of religious 
truth, is capable of self-government; and that community 
only, which is controlled by religious principle, will ever sup- 
port the order and peace of society, w ithout the sway of an 
arbitrary and tyrannical government. As patriots, therefore, 
we have" reason greatly to lament the progress of that form of 
Christian doctrine, which releases the minds of men from the 
wholesome terrors of the Divine law, and the benignant influ- 
ence of a rigid and efficient moral discipline. A religion of 
inefficient sanctions and indulgent morality, may suit a Despo- 
tism, but a Republick requires one more stern in its character, 
more penetrating and heart-searching in its influence, and 
more strict and rigorous in its requirements. 

We regret, in the next place, that this system has been 
broached and disseminated in this republick, because we had 
already sufficient sources of disunion and alienation of affec- 
tions between the people of the several states, and this effort 
is superadding another to those already existing, most porten- 
tous, and mischievous. The religions or forms of faith before 
received among us, although discrepant from each other in 
minute particulars, were consonant in their great out-lines, 
and although not entirely reconcileable to each other, yet 
they are not hostile in their views, or militant in their spirit, 
relations and correspondence with one another. But here is a 
doctrine broached, which like Ishmael, must turn its hand 
against all other theories of belief, while the hand of every 
other is directed in virulent hostility against it. This is an 
evil pregnant with incalculable mischief to the nation, and 
may, at a future day, shake the Empire to its dissolution. 
The violence of political contests, and the shock of opposing 
parties, not unfrequently now threaten the most serious and 
destructive consequences, and on some occasions, the yawning 
gulph of a separation of the States, or a dissolution of the 
wise confederacy, is presented to our terrified vision. All the 
evils which the imagination can depict, would follow in the 
train of such a horrid catastrophe, and the final and inevita- 
ble result, which would crown the whole, would be our in- 
tanglement in foreign alliances, and our subjection, at home, 
to the intolerable bondage of an arbitrary government, or 
the deepest of all political damnations, the damnation of a 
military despotism. May Heaven, in its benignity, in that be- 



134 



liigriity which it has so often signally displayed to this young, 
though mighty Empire, avert from us these dreadful evils, 
and, by rendering us a righteous, cause us to deserve to be a 
prosperous and happy people ! Brethren of our Eastern States! 
reflect seriously upon these views of this subject, and long 
hesitate, maturely deliberate, before you consent, by depart 
ing from the sacred religion of your Fathers, not only to aban- 
don the revealed will of your God, but also to introduce into 
your soil, those seeds of disunion, and alienation of heart and 
affections, that give birth to the most extensive and formida- 
ble evils. If you have already departed from the good old ways 
of your revered ancestors, and undervalued that adorable 
Saviour, who has ransomed you with the price of his own 
blood, no longer persevere in this devious track, that may 
lead you to shame and misery ; and henceforth resolve to de- 
vote yourselves' with renovated zeal, and more exemplary dili- 
gence to the service of your Divine Master, "If they who 
despised Moses' law, died without mercy, of how much sorer 
punishment, suppose ye, shall they be thought worthy, who 
have trampled under foot the Son of God, and counted ihe 
blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an un- 
holy thing, and done despite unto the Spirit of Grace ?" If, 
indeed, it is true, that Christ was a Divine Being, who, for 
the love with which he was animated for our fallen race, 
stooped from the throne of his glory, and became a partaker 
of our infirmities and sorrows, and at length encountered the 
ignominious death of the cross, matchless will that ingrati- 
tude and guilt be found, that shall refuse him those honours 
which he has so dearly purchased. And, allege not, as your 
apology and even justification, that you are actuated by the 
unbiassed convictions of your own minds, and, as the evidence 
of Christ's divinity is not sufficient to overcome your incre- 
dulity, you have no other light but your own reason, and you 
must follow its track, whither soever it may conduct you. 
May not your reason be dimmed by prejudice, and misled by 
the pride of knowledge, by vanity and ambition, by the love 
©f novelty, and by many unholy passions and affections, that, 
insensibly to yourselves, take possession of your hearts, and 
lead you, like the unwise man of the scriptures, to say that 
this Jesus is no God ? Beware that you delude not your own 
selves — that a perverted reason, and unsubdued and vicious 
propensities, do not mislead you, in an affair upon which is 
suspended your everlasting happiness or misery. Awful is the 
doom which is assigned to those who add to. or detract from 



135 



the doctrines which are contained in the sacred volume, 
whose names shali be obliterated from the book of life. Your 
Saviour has furnished, as you allow, incontestable credentials 
in demonstration of his Heavenly mission, and, upon those 
creditials are inscribed, in characters as bright as the beams 
of a meridian sun, the declarations of his exalted and Divine 
character. And, shall you persist in denying Him the honours 
of divinity, in questioning the efficacy of his atoning blood, 
and in divesting of its sanctions, his holy and most perfect 
law, which alone can convert and purify your souls, and fit 
you to become partakers of the everlasting inheritance of the 
saints in light ? God, in infinite mercy, forbid. We pray God, 
that your whole soul, and spirit and body, be preserved 
blameless, until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his 
own glorious body, according to the mighty working where- 
by he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." 

Finally, brethren of the Unitarian Denomination ! may it 
not be true, that the doctrines which you maintain, are not 
those which are inculcated in sacred scripture, that you have 
misunderstood the revelation of God's will, and that you are 
advocating a theory fraught with many mischievous effects 
to your race ? You ought not to be too confident of the cor- 
rectness of your peculiar views, since they have before been 
tried and found deficient, since they are at variance with the 
cool and deliberate judgment of the Church Universal, in all 
ages, since, in order to give them an air of probability, you 
are compelled to resort to every possible expedient, by which 
to interpret the sacred writings in your favour and since it 
is hardly to be presumed, that you are more intelligent, more 
learned, and more honest than all the rest of mankind, in all 
ages and nations of Christendom. A becoming modesty and 
distrust of your own faculties, as well as an interest in the 
present and everlasting welfare of your fellow-men, should 
induce you to pause, reject, read and study the scriptures, 
scrupulously examine the evidences of Christianity, the his- 
tory of the Church, the branches of science affiliated to theo- 
logy, and obtain a large share of profound erudition, before 
you prefer your own views, to those of the greatest and most 
learned men, that ever adorned the annals of their race. It is 
true, that mankind have sometimes been found capable of 
yielding an implicit faith to the most incredible doctrines, 
from a blind veneration for the authority by which they are 
recommended, and of pertinaciously adhering to the most su° 



136 



perstitious usages, from inveterate prejudices and the power 
of habit; and it becomes, in such cases, a noble and god-like 
undertaking, to rescue their minds from the bondage of igno- 
rance and error, and lead them on to freedom in their inqui- 
ries, and the attainment of truth. Upon this ground, we jus- 
tify the conduct of our Reformers from the errors and abu- 
ses of Romish superstition. But, is there no limit to be pre- 
scribed to this task of change, of improvement and reforma- 
tion ? Are we still to be regarded as simply engaged in the 
pursuit of truth, upon topicks of religion ? Is the Gospel to 
be estimated as simply a new theory, in the divine science of 
theology, which, like the philosophy of Aristotle or Des Car- 
tes, is to be falsified and supplanted, by more recent discove* 
ries, in this department of truth and nature ? After human 
reason has been enlightened by revelation, is it to be presum- 
ed, that it will outstrip its Instructor, ^and reflect back light 
and radiance upon the grand luminary of the moral world, 
the unerring reason of Almighty God himself? Brethren ! you 
and we, and all our race, must, as we believe, render in our 
account upon the day of judgment, for our improvement of 
the talents which are intrusted to our use, by the great Pro- 
prietor of universal nature. One of the most important ta- 
lents placed in our possession, and, for the right employment 
of which, we are under fearful responsibility, is the revealed 
word of God, which it is, at once, our province to interpret and 
obey. Now, if we allow our passions or prejudices, or any 
sinister bias, to misinterpret its clear and unambiguous im- 
port, and, instead of deriving from it those lessons which 
make us wise unto salvation, we pervert its language, and 
misrepresent its strain of sentiment, so as to furnish fuel to 
feed the unholy fires of passion, if we fritter away its doc- 
trines, mollify its sanctions, and limit the extent, as well as 
enervate the force of its holy requisitions, so as to suit the re- 
laxation of our principles of moral duty, the corruption of our 
hearts, or the license of our habits of living, all the plagues 
that are denounced in that volume, will be our merited pun- 
ishment. Can a greater crime be perpetrated against God, 
than to corrupt that sacred law which he has transmitted to 
us, as our rule of life, our charter of salvation, and the guar- 
antee which he has furnished us of his favour, and of the en- 
joyment of everlasting bliss? Can we more injuriously fight 
against God, oppose his will, thwart and frustrate his benig- 
nant purpose, than by constraining him to speak to us a lan- 
guage which he never spake, to proaiulge laws which hs 



137 



would repudiate, and give his sanction to principles which 
are abhorrent from his nature ? Is not such conduct, like those 
who plead their native tendencies, or constitutional propensi- 
ties, as a justification of their excesses, to make the Deity an 
accessory to our crimes, and a promoter of iniquity ? And 
why, brethren ! should the attempt have been made, or, if 
made, persevered in, to qualify or abate the rigor of evange- 
lical doctrine, or mitigate the strictness and severity of Chris- 
tian principle? Was the Church of Christ, in this country, 
characterized by excessive self-denial, abstemiousness and 
mortification, in the habits of its members, too great stern- 
ness and inflexibility of moral principle, cynical asperity of 
manners, monastick abstraction from the world and its plea- 
sures, and too exclusive devotedness to God, and the observ- 
ance of his holy commandments, that a necessity for greater 
liberality of thinking, relaxation of principles, and license in 
conduct, had become apparent ? On the contrary, from the 
admirable freedom incorporated into our political, civil and 
religious institutions, and from the too general prevalence of 
the principles of unbelief, about the time of our own war of 
independence, and subsequently of the French revolution, our 
religion, instead of holding the minds of our citizens in a state 
of vassalage, had lost a large portion of that salutary influence, 
which it formerly exerted, and is now beginning again to ex- 
ert over them. The rage of the infidel philosophy, had just 
passed away, and we began to become sensible of the folly 
and impiety with which it was chargeable, and to find that, 
as we are formed religious animals by our Creator, we must 
have some religion in our possession, and that Christianity is 
that religion, which the same God who framed our nature, 
has conveyed to us. Thank God ! and it is a subject of real 
congratulation among all the true friends of a Republican 
Government, that the people of this country are begin- 
ning to feel the influence of deep and genuine piety, and to 
be ready to lavish their treasures, and devote their time and 
best exertions, for its growth and prosperity. Without any 
other aid but that which it derives from publick sentiment, 
by the foree of that irresistible evidence which accompanies 
it, Christianity is daily gaining ground upon the good sense, 
the intelligence and virtue of this rising community. Let it 
be communicated to this interesting people, in a form that 
vshall be effectual to the illumination of their understandings, 
the purification of their morals, and the complete regulation 
18 



138 



of their lives. Now, under the Unitarian form, it never can 
accomplish these important and beneficial purposes. That 
system of faith, waving all reference to its truth, is too intel- 
lectual in its character, of too attenuated and refined a 
texture, and too lifeless and frigorifick in its spirit and tem- 
perament, to be suited to the great body of the people in any 
country. That pale cast of scepticism, too, that marks its 
complexion, and its natural hostility to all addresses to the 
senses, will forever prevent it from laying a deep and power- 
ful hold upon the human mind, while the unbounded license 
of belief which it allows to its professors, will soon convert it 
into that kingdom, which, being divided against itself, must 
tend rapidly to decline and dissolution. There is no one prin- 
ciple in the whole contexture of this system, which can com- 
municate to it perpetuity, or even a protracted existence. It pos- 
sesses no vital power, either in its external form, or its inter- 
nal principle, and must come to a speedy ruin. Brethren! the 
sooner these unscriptural doctrines, and this disjointed frame 
of ecclesiastical polity is abandoned, the better for yourselves, 
for the present and everlasting welfare of mankind, and the 
peace, order and prosperity of your country. Return, with- 
out delay, into the good old way in which your fathers walk- 
ed, and, in that way, you will find all peace and joy in be- 
lieving, and all comfort and support in acting, and at last be 
gathered to their ashes, with the testimony of a good con- 
science, in the delightful communion of the catholick church, 
under the full conviction that you enjoy the favour of God, 
and the respect and veneration of your fellow men. Cease 
your exertions in the promotion of this portentous and pesti- 
lential heresy, which, if it be persevered in, will, at some fu- 
ture day, fill this great Republick with a mighty conflagra- 
tion. Adding the^ fury of religious zeal, to those fierce politi- 
cal contests that must, at intervals, agitate and embroil the 
State, it may at length shake our Union even to dissolution. 
As Patriots and good Citizens, therefore, as well as champions 
of eternal truth, and ardent votaries of the cause of Christ, 
we entreat you to relinquish this perilous enterprise. In the 
conduct of such an undertaking, God can never be upon your 
side, and, without his Almighty aid, vain will be the help of 
man, and fruitless all the efforts and contrivances of human 
wisdom and skill. You disallow his supreme Divinity, despise 
the sacrifice he has made for your sins, repudiate the aids of 
his blessed spirit, and confide in your own strength, to work 



139 



out your own peace and salvation. Will not such ingratitude 
and presumption be highly offensive to that Heavenly Parent, 
who has condescended to redeem and sanctify you, and ex- 
pose you at last to the chance of a fearful retribution ? Think 
of these things seriously, repeatedly, and with vehement im- 
portunity in prayer, and, we trust, that, by God's grace, you 
will be brought to a better mind, have recourse to the merits 
of your Redeemer, as your only hope of salvation, and at last 
receive from his mouth your final benediction, and have an en- 
trance granted to you, into the joys of that everlasting king- 
dom, which he hath prepared for his faithful people, in his 
Father's houseo 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. 

Much, too, has been said and written upon the subject of American taste and 
iiterature, and many illiberal criticisms indulged by English travellers and re- 
viewers, in reference to the pretensions of American Authors. It is presumed 
to be no just ground of disparagement and censure, that we are unable to enter 
Into competition with England in this respect, but, considering the infant state 
of the Republick, and the active habits of" the people, arising naturally out of 
their peculiar circumstances, every intelligent judge will be rather inclined to 
commend us for having accomplished so much, than to traduce and vilify us 
for not having performed still more. But, let us, at all events, entreat the learn- 
ed and impartial Judges of Europe, to take care to make themselves acquaint- 
ed with what we have done, before they undertake to pronounce a definitive opi- 
nion upon our genius and acquisitions. It is natural that the Literati of Eng- 
land, inasmuch as they are possessed of such an ample supply of able authors 
upon all subjects at home, should overlook and neglect the productions issued 
from the press, upon this side of the Atlantick. But, in common justice, and 
upon all principles of fair and honourable dealing, let them not undertake to 
decry and condemn us, until they have, at least, been at the pains to peruse the 
authors upon whose writings we put in our claims to scientifick and literary 
reputation. Who reads an American book, exclaims one of the Reviewers, as- 
suied that the reply to this interrogatory, would serve to confirm his malignant 
insinuation; and we find a learned Archbishop of Canterbury, according to the 
report of a recent traveller into England, although kind enough to express an 
opinion favourable to our pretensions, yet discovering that the whole of his ac- 
quaintance with our literature, was limited to the perusal of a few of our most 
popular periodical journals. Now, it will be acknowledged, that those must be 
rare judges of American genius and taste, who never read an American book ; 
and what would be the estimate which we should form of the scientifick and li- 
terary pretensions of England, if it were founded solely upon the perusal of 
their periodical journals and reviews ? Let not that greatest and best nation 
that ever existed, undervalue the claims, or disparage the reputation of an off- 
spring, that promises, at this time, to arrive at the highest glory to which it can 
attain, and to rival, if not outstrip in greatness, its ancient sire. If we may judge 
from the language of their reviews, besides our periodical journals, and occa- 
sional pamphlets, which derive uncommon interest from their reference to the 
political concerns of nations, the only American writers whose names appear 
to be familiar to Englishmen, are those of Franklin, Irving and Brown. Now, 
these are writers, who deserve all the honours which have been bestowed upon 
them. But, let it be known also, upon the other side of the Atlantick, that we 
have writers upon many of those topicks which are most interesting to the hu- 
man mind, who, if they do not equal, at least would not be greatly diminished, 
by a comparison with those illustrious men, who have reflected upon England 
such inextinguishable glory. We can boast of our natural and moral Philoso- 
phers, political essayists, writers upon international law, medicine and political 
oeconomy^ Historians, Metaphysicians, Divines, Poets, Painters and Orators, 
whose productions, if fairly estimated, England would be proud to acknow- 
ledge. As Franklin had the happiness to make some discoveries in natural sci- 
ence, and opened a new field in that department of knowledge, his merits have 
ibeen long known to the philosophick world. But, perhaps, it is not as well known, 
that Dwight has written upon Divinity, a work that is second only to the Ori- 
gines Sacrae of the inimitable Stillingfleet, if it be second even to that, and that 
Edwards, in his treatise upon the will, has exhibited the finest specimen of 
metaphysical disquisition, that has appeared since the time of Locke. Dr. Sa- 



142 



muel Smith has produced the most conclusive argument, that lias yet appeared, 
in proof of the identity of the human species, while his three volumes of sermons 
are undoubtedly among the mostable and interesting compositions of that nature, 
that have issued from the press, for a century past. The work entitled the Fe- 
deralist, is a lasting monument of the ability and learning of its authors; while 
the productions of Jefferson, Madison,IIamilton, the Adamses,Fisher Ames, Har- 
per and others, would, in any country, be regarded as replete with the most pro- 
found lessons of political wisdom, as well as admirable specimens of popular elo- 
quence. The habits of our writers, do not admit of the production of ponderous 
volumes, the fruit of long-continued study and accumulated erudition ; but, if 
all that has been published by our greatest men, in detached pieces, such as oc- 
casional essays, reviews, speeches in deliberative assemblies, sermons and eulo- 
giums upon distinguished men, could be judiciously selected, and arranged in 
a series of volumes, we should find a body of matter, at which those who are 
in the habit of undervaluing the genius and taste, as well as acquisitions of our 
countrymen, would be astonished. Certainly no one can peruse the works of 
Dr. Rush, without allowing that be is the worthy associate of Harvey, Syden- 
ham and Cullen; and the attempts which have been made at the composition of 
real history, by Ramsay and Marshall, and of fictitious, by Brown, and those 
authors now living, with whose names the publick are familiarized, are highly 
creditable to us. We need not enumerate the painters of our country, as all 
must acknowledge, that, considering the short time in which she has subsisted 
as a distinct Republic, she has been unusually fortunate, in giving birth to ge- 
nius in that art. Our poets, commencing with Trumbull and Barlow, and allud- 
ing to the number that are at this time competitors with Percival, for the ho- 
nours of the Muse, it cannot be denied, have produced some exquisitely finish- 
ed pieces. In international law, Judge Kent has given us some profound dis- 
sertations ; in geography, Dr. Morse has greatly succeeded ; and, in the art of 
eloquence, Hamilton, Ames, King, Henry, Harper and Pinckney, will long be 
remembered, for the influence which they held in our councils, and the force 
of their example, in stimulating those who now occupy their places, to rival, if 
not surpass them. Nor has America been unfruitful of Divines, who have illu- 
minated and adorned the pulpit. Of those who are now living, it might be 
thought an invidious task to discriminate any number from the rest; but we 
shall not soon have obliterated from our minds, the impression made upon them 
by the powers of Smith, Kollock, Hobart, Dehone, Mason, and Buckminster ; 
and the sermons which they have left, will prove an invaluable legacy to tbe 
Church of Christ. The fame of these Divines, together with many who are 
now living, will descend to future ages as a rich inheritance, and animate Pul- 
pit Speakers to the highest efforts of sacred oratory. Let learned and impartial 
Judges in Europe, thoroughly read and understand our works, and we shall 
willingly abide the decision which they will pronounce upon our taste, talents, 
science and literature. 

Note B. 

I think that they who shall take the pains to investigate metaphysical sci, 
ence, throughout all its details, will find that the following propositions are sup- 
ported by sufficient evidence. With a few exceptions, the great leading doc- 
trines of Locke are sound and irrefragable, and will be found so, as long as 
man remains constituted as he is at present; and, in the excepted cases, he was 
detected in error by his own contemporaries, and immediate successors, as But- 
ler, Stillingfleet and Berkeley. It is somewhat singular, that Dr. Reid, (and in 
this he has been imitated by his successors in Scotland,) when objecting to 
Locke's principles, and endeavouring to subvert them, never alludes to the pre- 
ceding writers who disputed their accuracy, but proceeds precisely as if his 
views were entirely original ; whereas, in every instance in which he brings a 



143 



solid objection against Locke's system, he had been anticipated in it by oth- 
ers, and, in instances in which he brings original objections, and proposes a 
new theory, he is evidently wrong. To make good my assertions. Dr. Reid ob- 
jects to Locke's doctrine, that he supposes us to obtain all our simple ideas, 
by the two inlets of sensation and reflection. This same objection is made 
by Stillingfleet, as distinctly as by him. Dr. Reid objects that Mr. Locke, 
in the case of the primary qualities of body, supposes a resemblance between 
the idea in our minds, and the quality in the object, which is undoubtedly true. 
This very doctrine of Locke, had been refuted by Berkeley. Dr. Reid alleges> 
that Mr. Locke, in his account of the origin of our idea of substance, utterly 
excludes all permanent existences whatsoever. This was one of the very points 
of controversy between him and Bishop Stillingfleet. Dr. Reid denies that 
Locke's doctrine about personal identity is just, and the same is clearly demon- 
strated by Bishop Butler. As far as Dr. Reid, we see, keeps pace with his Pre- 
decessors, he walks upon solid ground ; but, as soon as he deserts that path, he 
wanders from the truth. The first objection to Locke, which is the production 
of his own mind, is, that this great Metaphysician maintains the ideal system^ 
that is the doctrine, that, in an act of perception, our minds do not immediate- 
ly perceive the object itself, but only its idea, image or representative. This 
objection was never before heard of, ought never to have been broached, and 
has no foundation in truth, as we think, we have shown in another treatise. 
Dr. Reid objects to Mr. Locke, that he denies the existence of an external 
world, or rather lays a foundation for a denial of it, by attempting to prove its 
reality by argument, which human reason is unable to accomplish, and, of con- 
sequence, sceptical authors availed themselves of this circumstance, and reject- 
ed an external and internal world. This is an objection of Dr. Reid's own in- 
vention also, and is not true, as Locke, as distinctly as any one, rests the belief 
of an external world, upon the testimony ef the senses. Dr. Reid has attempt- 
ed to show, but without success, that Mr. Locke is wrong in tracing all our sim- 
ple ideas either to the inlet of sensation or reflection. Dr. Reid unsuccessfully 
combats Mr. Locke's doctrine about our perception of the progress of time, un- 
der what circumstances it appears long to us, and when short. Dr. Reid endea- 
vours, but unsuccessfully, to show, that, according to Mr. Locke, self-evident 
maxims, or first truths, do not lie at the foundations of the sciences, not even of 
the mathematical. Mr. Locke expressly maintains that they do, so strangely is 
he misapprehended by the Doctor. 

Besides these erroneous interpretations of Mr. Locke's works, Dr. Reid intro- 
duces some new constituent principles or instincts, into the constitution of our 
nature. He supposes a principle of credulity, a principle of induction, and one 
by which we instinctively decide, that, for every effect, there must be a cause. 
Such are the metaphysicks of Dr. Reid, who, while we admit that his specula- 
tions have served to throw light upon some topicks discussed in this branch of 
science, has greatly obscured its fundamental truths, by broaching new and 
umbunded opinions. In all the language of Philosophers, he finds the ideal 
theory, or some traces of the features of this his adopted child, and it creeps 
into, and vitiates all his own speculations. But, if Dr. Reid has muddied the 
waters of metaphysicks, in some cases, by stirring them, Mr. Stewart has filled 
the whole atmosphere with fogs; while, in the writings of Dr. Brown, Scot- 
tish metaphysicks may truly and emphatically be said, to have gone out in 
smoke. I mean not the least disparagement to that great, energetick and en- 
lightened people. They have produced many fine writers, and all kinds of 
greatness in abundance, but they have never produced any such metaphysi- 
cians as Locke, Clarke and Butler. It is one thing to have a sufficient turn to 
metaphysical inquiries, to be able to understand them, and write too with clear- 
ness and good sense about them ; and quite another, to have a metaphysical cast 
of mind, an appetency for this kind of food, and a genius to improve the science. 
Such were those whom I have mentioned in England, Liebnitz in Germany, Aria 
totle among the Greeks, and Edwards in our own country, to whom we might 



144 



add some others now living, would their modesty but allow of the reference. It 
is no small gratification to us to find, that the keen, clear and penetrating minds 
of several of those Professors of our Seminaries and Colleges, with whom we have 
conversed and corresponded, and all of whom are compelled by their situa- 
tions, as well as incited by inclination to investigate this subject, entertain opi- 
nions upon it entirely accordant to our own. Our Reviewers, whom we would se- 
riously exhort to study and understand metaphysicks, before they undertake to 
review works which are written about it, may extol, by the most unbounded pa- 
negyricks, the polished periods, magnificent imagery, and exquisite art and 
address of Stewart, and the splendid declamation and gorgeous embroidery of 
Brown ; and, as amusing and even, in a degree, instructive authors, they may 
be allowed a large share of praise, but, as Philosophical writers, as authors 
whose province is to convey lessons of instruction, to investigate nature, and 
unfold the truth, they cannot, and will not long hold the reputation they have 
acquired. As soon as mankind take the pains to study and understand meta- 
physicks, the fame of such writers will vanish like mist before the beams of 
the morning sun. This may not be palatable doctrine to those, who peruse the 
Authors that are successively presented to their attention, merely to obtain 
some striking images, apt similitudes, or fine sentiments, which they may repro- 
duce in conversation, and with which they may surprise and delight their com- 
panions. But, to those who are really and truly engaged in the search of truth, 
and who value the acquisition of it above gold and precious gems, who, in the lan- 
guage of that best of books, that book which is more precious than all the finest 
productions of human genius united, " cry for knowledge, and lift up their voice 
for understanding, who seek wisdom as silver, and search for her as hid trea- 
sure," we are not afraid to risk our reputation as a Prophet, upon the complete 
fulfilment of the prediction which we have promulged, in reference to the above- 
mentioned authors. The late learned and able Attorney General of the United 
States, in an address to a Literary Society, delivered at New Brunswick, in this 
State, remarks that the metaphysicians, by successively attacking and over- 
throwing each others' systems, have converted the field of contention into a 
Golgotha, or place of sculls. Besides being an apt similitude, this is a conclu- 
sion to which I would expect a vigorous mind, and a mind ardently engaged in 
the pursuit of truth, would come, in the present state of that science, provided 
he enjoyed just sufficient leisure to give all the works upon metaphysicks a cur- 
sory perusal, but have not time completely to master every topick, and so win- 
now every treatise, as to separate the error from the truth contained in it. But, 
if the able author of that address, which is pregnant with sound sense, just and 
profound reflections, and most apt and striking illustrations, and which, taken 
all together, is really a masterly production of that kind, will allow me, I would 
offer him a clue that will safely conduct him out of the labyrinth into which 
he has been transported, by the various and discordant writers upon it. We 
would recommend to him, for this purpose, thoroughly to study and under- 
stand Locke, Butler, Stillingfleet and Berkeley, but, above ail, the first, who 
may justly be said to be the great light of this science. Almost all who under- 
take to study Locke, complain of his obscurity and indefinite use of terms. To 
the last charge, he is undoubtedly liable, and the second has arisen out of the 
first; but, we shall conclude this Tract, by the reflection, that we may rest 
assured, we have not yet mastered Locke's system, until, notwithstanding 
some slight shades thrown over our conceptions, by his ambiguity in the use of 
words, we see our path plainly displayed before us, and can prosecute, our course 
with confidence and alacrity. Light your torch at the fountain of illumination, 
(we would say,) in the work of Locke — brighten its fires, by application to Stil- 
lingfleet, Butler, Berkeley and Clarke, in English, and to Des Cartes and Mal- 
lebranche, in French, and you may safely wander over the whole field of this 
science, and rifle it of every precious gem of truth, which is comprehended 
in it. 



^ o £ 

w. 



A VINDICATION 



OF THE 



ORTHODOX FAITH. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



15* 



